The Meridian City Council is set to hear more about a proposed plan to change how city workers’ pay is governed Tuesday as council members weigh a request by the mayor to swap from pay bands to pay grades.

City positions are currently controlled by pay bands, which dictate a minimum and maximum salary that someone in that position can earn. Where an employee falls within that band is up to their supervisor or department head, but pay cannot go outside of the pay band without council approval.

In a July 30 work session Mayor Jimmie Smith said the city’s current system of using pay bands is outdated, and pay grades are the way to go.

“The job bands are outdated,” he said. “The federal government is using job grades.”

The council previously asked Matthew Peterson, a research associate with the John. C. Stennis Institute of Government & Community Development, to study moving from pay bands to pay grades, and he presented those findings to the council earlier this year.

Pay grades are more structured that pay bands, he explained, and employees will be able to see how their years of service or other achievements will impact their paychecks. To implement pay grades, the city will need to assign grades to each of the different job titles and descriptions. Workers in those positions can then see their pay grade and see how it will benefit them.

Councilwoman Romande Walker, who serves as council president, said pay bands provide a wider range for salaries and are more flexible. Pay grades, she said, are more structured and provide a clear career path for employees who want it.

While Peterson presented the pay grades with a step increase of 3% each year, council members said the raises will need to be contingent on council approval as there’s no guarantee the city can afford the raises every year.

Councilman George Thomas said the city needs to have a system where employees can clearly see what they are going to be paid and when they are going to get a raise. Before voting to move to pay grades, he said he wants to see what exactly the council will be changing.

“I just want somebody to give me a specific example of what would change,” he said.

Peterson is expected to help answer some of the council’s questions about pay grades during a work session set for 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in the auditorium on the third floor of city hall.

Also on the agenda for the work session are Neil Henry to discuss the Meridian Public School District Foundation for Educational Excellence and the city’s Pavement Condition Index, which is an assessment of the condition of the city’s roads and recommended maintenance received in 2021. At the time, the index recommended the city invest $6 million in paving annually to maintain its current road conditions, but the council has opted not to allocate those funds during each year’s budget process.