Explanation of pay bands

Pay and benefits for staff earning over £50,000 are set nationally either by The National Joint Council for Local Government Services or the Joint Negotiating Committee for Chief Officers of Local Authorities and locally through our Employment Committee and Full Council.

The remuneration package is made up of salary and the opportunity to opt into the local government pension scheme. Regulations governing the pension scheme are set nationally. Employees are expected to make contributions of between 5.5% and 7.5% into the pension fund (the more you earn, the more you contribute). This employee contribution is matched by an employer contribution which is currently 19.1%.

The council’s expenses policy applies to all staff regardless of salary and covers things such as reimbursement for travel expenses. Staff earning over £50,000 per annum do not qualify for any other allowances.

All city council job types are evaluated using the JESS (Job Evaluation Support System) job evaluation scheme and jobs have been placed in a salary band, which contains that job’s evaluation score.

JESS is a factor-based analytical job evaluation methodology designed to allow trained analysts to evaluate all jobs within any organisation from Chief Executive and Strategic Directors to the most junior positions.

The seven factors contained within JESS are:

• Knowledge, Skills and Breadth of Application
• Complexity and Mental Challenge
• Judgment, Independence and Impact
• Supervision of Resources and Influence
• Communication
• Physical Demands and Co-ordination
• Working Conditions and Emotional Demands

Bands 16 and 17 £66,110 to £72,581 and £72,740 to £80,398

Post holders in these two bands are generally Heads of Service and report directly either to Strategic Directors or the Chief Executive and most manage very large and diverse teams, with commensurately large-scale budgets.

Post holders exercise considerable influence over council policy development and are expected to lead major change agenda within their disciplines. They represent the Council at senior levels both internally and externally, and seek to foster effective relations with key external partners. Post holders are accountable for the delivery of significant aspects of their Strategic Directors’ annual business plan within timescales and budget, and to quality standards.

The separation between bands 16 and 17 is essentially one of scale, in other words the post holders in band 17 either have larger, more complex spans of control, and/or greater influence on policy development and service delivery.

Band 18 – £84,636 to £93,799

Independent director posts below strategic director level.

Band 19 – £99,007 to £109,430

Commercial Port/MMD Managing Director and Strategic Directors.

Band 20 – £134,705 to £148,885

The Chief Executive.