Guilford County Schools looks to bring pay ranges for classified staff up to market rate

Guilford County Schools staff presented the recommended budget for 2024 on Tuesday. 

The proposal includes a $42 million request to the county for increases in teacher supplements and adjustments to pay ranges for classified staff.

Michael LaClair, the district’s senior executive director of human resources operations, explained the current salary structure, which is made up of grades and steps.

A grade classifies a job based on its scope and impact. Each grade is made up of steps, which are equivalent to one year of experience. 

LaClair said a district salary study revealed issues with the current structure. 

“An employee on grade 54 — and this would include our custodians, our teacher assistants — they do not receive an increase in their hourly wage until they have reached 32 years of experience with the district," he said. 

That's called step compression, which means employees aren't seeing increases in hourly wages across years of experience.

LaClair said staff members also experience grade compression, which is when staff members in higher-grade jobs are making the same amount of money as those in lower-grade jobs. He gave the example of lead custodians earning the same hourly wage as the custodians they supervise. 

"This, of course, provides a great challenge in recruiting and retaining employees and finding employees who are willing to take on jobs of higher responsibility," LaClair said. 

To fix that, the district recommends a new funding model that would bring pay ranges up to the market rate. This would create a 5% pay difference between grades, and a 1.5% pay difference between steps. 

But some school board members thought the district should go beyond that. 

Chairperson Deena Hayes-Greene said the county should consider the cost of not paying school staff more. 

“Just having a high school diploma decreases the likelihood of coming in contact with law enforcement, increases higher wages on your job, increases better housing options, increases better health," she said. "I mean, all of those things are tangible benefits to our overall community.” 

The board will hold a public hearing on the proposed budget on May 9.

Amy Diaz covers education for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.