CLASSIFIED CIVIL SERVICE Study finds above-average pay at YSU

A union official questions the employment study's accuracy.
YOUNGSTOWN -- A study commissioned by Youngstown State University states the school's classified civil service employees earn 12.6 percent more in wages than those who do similar jobs in the area.
The results of the study, conducted by CBIZ Business Solutions of St. Louis, were released Tuesday. The company used 14 surveys detailing median pay for positions that are similar to classified civil service jobs at YSU in the Youngstown-Warren-Sharon, Pa. metropolitan area.
YSU paid about $43,000 to the company for the study, said John Habat, the university's vice president for administration. It is the first time in at least recent history that the school hired a company to conduct a survey of its classified civil service employees, he said.
Edward R. Rataj, CBIZ's manager of compensation consulting, said his company conducted an apples-to-apples survey, meaning it matched job descriptions at YSU with other places of employment in the area and compared salary and benefits. About 500 businesses were used for comparisons, he said.
Doesn't agree
But Gary P. Carlile, a labor relations consultant for the Ohio Education Association union, said he isn't sure the comparisons are accurate.
Carlile assists the YSU Association of Classified Employees union -- which consists of about 400 classified civil service workers -- with contract negotiations, as well as the professors union at YSU. That union also has close to 400 members.
The data collected by CBIZ is generic information, and the survey would be more accurate if it didn't focus so heavily on the local area, said Carlile, who attended Tuesday's presentation.
The survey included comparisons to 16 universities, all but two in Ohio, but Rataj acknowledged the results primarily focused on the local area.
"This is an economically depressed area," Carlile said. "You would think you'd look at surrounding metropolitan areas such as Cleveland, Columbus and Pittsburgh. Our graduates go there to work. The methodology raises more questions than it answers."
Benefits
Most of YSU's classified civil service employees are members of the ACE union. The union's three-year contract, which included annual raises of about 3 percent, expires Aug. 15. ACE has close to 400 members.
Negotiations between ACE and YSU are to begin shortly.
Hugh L. Chatman, YSU's human resources/labor relations executive director, said the survey was not done as a negotiating tool.
The survey states YSU classified civil service employees are paid well above the market for low-paying jobs, and their salaries fall in line with higher-paying jobs in the area.
The highest-paid classified civil service position at YSU is a systems analyst with nearly 21 years at the school earning $79,560 a year, about 13 percent higher than the market median for the job. But a software specialist with more than seven years of experience at YSU earns $57,907 annually, or 17.7 percent less than the market median for the job.
Also, benefits to YSU classified civil service employees are 19.5 percent above the market average, the study states.
"This is particularly true of the educational benefit, sick leave and vacation. Based on our experience with other universities, the education benefit is generous, even when compared to other institutions of higher learning," the study reads.
Low turnover
Rataj gave a presentation of the study's findings Tuesday at Beeghly Hall's McKay Auditorium on the YSU campus with all classified civil service employees invited to attend. Two or three classified employees attended, Carlile said. The study's results are not surprising, Carlile said, because the data isn't a fair comparison.
Rataj acknowledged that YSU food services employees were compared to those who work at local fast-food restaurants, among others, and college secretaries were compared to temporary workers, among others.
"The findings are clear; we have a very generous benefits package, relatively speaking compared to the market," Habat said. "People have surmised this for a long time. A goal of ours is to have a competitively paid workforce. The university is happy to have provided good employees with good benefits. We plan to continue to do so. We want to have the best workforce we can have."
The study showed that YSU has "extremely low turnover" among classified civil service staff. The average experience in a particular job at YSU is seven years, and average years of service at the university for classified workers is 17 years.