The below email and attachments were sent from City of Atlanta Chief Operating Officer Peter Aman to Council Members earlier this week. The attached data points are for preliminary informational purposes only and do not constitute a final product in any way.
Council members, with a copy to Mayor and senior staff:
Please find below and attached some preliminary information on employee salary vs. CPI. We will be issuing a more formal and final memo on this issue in a few weeks, but in order to allow for collective input on the methodology, I thought it best to circulate to the full council and senior staff at this time. It is also timely to have everyone review this analysis now given the start of the budget process. I am also going to forward this analysis to those union contacts I know of who have presented me with similar calculations previously so as to solicit their comments. This email and attachments will also be made available to media tomorrow given the wide distribution of this emerging information. While this is “work in process,” I believe it adds a great deal to the current discussion.
Attached are a series of PRELIMINARY charts comparing growth in employee salary to CPI. These PRELIMINARY charts show that since 1999 numerous step, COLA, and other bonus adjustments have kept employees in all classes (Sworn Police, Sworn Fire and General Employees) essentially above inflation. A similar analysis since 2004 shows much the same picture, though General Employees have fallen somewhat behind CPI during this period.
It is interesting to note that there are more salary increases over the last 10 years (many in fact) than typically get mentioned. This analysis is marked preliminary because we anticipate further suggestions for data cuts and methodology changes as a broader group of employees and staff review the analysis. It is possible that these changes may alter the picture (and implications) somewhat, but we would be surprised if the general story of changes. The data is included in the attached document. This analysis uses a median employee class, though looking purely at junior or senior employees does not change the overall picture to the degree we have run those cuts thus far.
This analysis does not include changes in health care cost driven by increases in health coverage costs as these are incorporated in the CPI benchmark as well. The change in the share of percentage paid for by the City is footnoted and future versions may attempt to adjust for this issue. Please contact Duriya Farooqui, Deputy COO (
dfarooqui@atlantaga.gov) with questions or input on the analysis.
Salary Analysis
Salary Analysis 1999 backup data
Salary Analysis 2004 backup data
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