Section 2.1-114.6 of the Virginia Personnel Act provides in part that: "It is the goal 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. In determining comparability, consideration shall be given to the economic value of fringe benefits in addition to direct compensation." In accordance with this section the Department of Personnel and Training has conducted its annual compensation review, the results of which are attached.

This survey is the fourth that has been printed and disseminated to the Governor and the members of General Assembly. It is important to note that this survey is but one of a number of salary surveys that are performed by the Department of Personnel and Training (DPT) in an on-going effort to maintain up-to-date salary information on classes comparable to those in State service. In addition DPT participates in a large number of other surveys, the results of which are made available to us. These surveys make up a significant base of information that allows DPT to make specific salary recommendations throughout the year on an as-needed basis for the approximately 2800 classes in State service. The purpose of the attached survey is to determine generally the competitiveness of the Commonwealth's salary and fringe benefit practices. Methodology involves distributing salary survey forms to participants, follow up on-site visits to check comparisons, data analysis, and finally compilation into the format that is attached.

The survey consists of data collected from sixty participants representing private industry, hospitals, local governments in Virginia, and State governments in the United States. The data is presented as percentage deviations from the minimum and maximum State salaries for comparable classes utilized by participants. For example, a figure of -4.6/-4.7 indicates that the survey group exceeds the State salary range by 4.6% at the minimum and 4.7% at the maximum. The various attachments show the specific salary data obtained.

A summary sheet (Attachment l) indicates the overall percentage deviations between the major groups of participants and the Commonwealth. Additional attachments detail the classes surveyed and the reported salaries for each participant. Further, a separate sheet (Attachment 9) indicates the comparison of the Commonwealth's ranges with participants in the Northern Virginia area. Because the Commonwealth pays a salary differential in this area, this data is handled separately. Also, because the data from the College Placement Council and the American Management Association is nationwide in its scope and focused only on the hiring or minimum salary, it was not included in the total column of Attachment I. A complete list of survey participants is included in Attachment 10.

In this survey as in any salary survey the key issue is job comparability. Because of the types of services performed in State government it is not possible to find appropriate private sector comparisons for all classes of positions. For this reason some data has been included from other State and local governments.