Jackson providing competitive employee wages, HR group says at city board meeting

Steve Cohen, principal of Lee’s Summit-based HR Solutions On-Call, presented the Jackson Board of Aldermen and mayor with its 2024 employee wage, salary and benefits survey results during the Monday, Oct. 7, meeting.

The city has had the company’s wage and salary plan in place since 1998. Jackson is Cohen’s longest continual client and he has returned every three or four years to retake the survey and analyze market data.

“It’s worked exactly as identified or anticipated and I really hope you all feel like the services that you’ve received from my company have been adequate at a minimum,” he said.

This year, like the last five times he has visited, he identified comparable entities and asked for wage, salary and benefit data to see how Jackson compares. Nine of the 11 municipalities he requested information from responded.

Cohen created a career progression system for the city, rewarding loyal workers who have maintained credentials and built experience, with fewer adjustments at upper levels of leadership.

“We’re very confident that what we’ve done here is routine. It follows a very orderly progression and what you see in front of you is something that will be good for another three, four, five years,” he said.

Cohen said the city’s salary ranges remained competitive without overpaying or underpaying workers. The former would be playing fast and loose with public money, he said, and the latter would allow other municipalities to poach Jackson’s officials.

He added that significantly increased inflation over the last few years has led to a reaction in public employee pay. In the past, public employees received relatively low pay counterbalanced by significant benefits. Nowadays, Cohen said he’s seeing municipalities increase base pay and provide somewhat fewer benefits for a more even distribution.

Cohen said Jackson remains a quality employer.

Payments made

The aldermen approved several payments during their meeting, including $25,357.50 to CivicPlus LLC of Manhattan, Kansas, for website hosting services in 2025. An additional $25,835 went to United Land Title to acquire right of way for the North High Street and Deerwood Drive roundabout. Cape Girardeau business Bacon Farmer Workman Engineering & Testing Inc. received $50,000 for splash pad engineering services.