Senate Joint Resolution No. 13 of the 1974 General Assembly of Virginia states in part: "That it is the policy of the Commonwealth that its employees be compensated at a rate comparable to the rate of compensation for employees in the private sector of the Commonwealth in similar occupations." The Resolution calls for the Director of Personnel to conduct an annual compensation review, and to report the results to the Governor and the General Assembly. The results of the 1974 review are attached.

SCOPE OF THE SURVEY

Surveys were conducted of current salary ranges paid to selected classes of positions by ten private business firms in the Richmond area. Similar surveys were conducted of six Richmond area hospitals, eleven hospitals in Virginia outside the Richmond area, and ten major teaching hospitals in the Southeastern United States. Current salary data was also extracted from the September, 1974 Community Salary Survey conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond; from the compensation plans of eleven units of local government in Virginia; from the August, 1974 survey by the U.S. Civil Service Commission of salaries paid to employees of the State Governments of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida; from the American Management Association survey of hiring rates paid to 1974 college graduates, by 374 national business firms; and from the College Placement Council survey of beginning job offers to graduates of 158 U. S. colleges and universities. Because the data from the last two sources is of a nationwide rather than a local or regional nature, it is not included in the general data summaries and is presented separately in Attachment II.

Data was also gathered in the survey from Northern Virginia localities and compared with Commonwealth differential salaries presently approved for use in Northern Virginia. The data supports a similar treatment of salary range adjustments in Northern Virginia as will be recommended for the State as a whole, with the exception of clerical classes. Because of a four-step differential now approved for the State's clerical positions in Northern Virginia, an additional increase of only one step is sufficient to achieve competitive parity in this area.

Those enclosures to this report which are marked "Attachment" contain major summaries of data or discussions of items requiring special treatment. Those marked "Exhibit" provide detailed listings and summaries of the salary data gathered from the various survey participants. Participating firms are not identified by name in the data presentations because of assurances made to them that the confidentiality of the data provided would be protected.