to ask how to negotiate pay at a local authority?

[HildegardVonBingham]

Hi all,

DP is on a fixed-term contract at a local council. She gets excellent feedback etc. Her contract is up for renewal, and has been assured by her manager that she and the directors in the team want to keep her on. It is a small team, and she has recently acquired chartered planner status, though her job is not solely planning-focussed.

She wants a pay rise but is worried that it will jeopardise her contract renewal? Any advice? I have only ever worked in the private sector so am a bit clueless.

Thank you!

There is no negotiation in public sector pay. Each job will have a banding, and you start at the bottom of the band and work you way up, by time served (ie going up one grade per year) and in some job roles, by having to do certain things to progress, eg I had to do certain training courses to be able to keep going to the top of my band.

There is no scope to negotiate in relation to performance. It's expected that you will be good at your job, and if you weren't up to speed they should be doing something re performance management. It's also that many public sector jobs are much harder to quantify performance to justify pay increases, as the jobs rarely generate income, which is typically what people look at in private. Usually if managers want to incentivise good staff to keep them on, they'll look at other things such as flexibility in work or options for training or progression, but not financial incentives.

The only negotiation I've ever come across is if you move to a public sector post from a higher wage, you might negotiate starting on a higher point within the band.

I agree - there is no scope to negotiate in the public sector. No one is irreplaceable. Asking for a pay rise is like asking to be promoted. It won’t happen.

Yep, another saying there’s very little room for negotiation. If you’re a permanent member of staff as PP has said, you’ll be on a banded payscale and the only opportunity you might have is to ask to move up or start on a salary point that isn’t the bottom rung on the pays scale ladder.

I disagree to some extent. Pay is banded but you can be at the top or bottom of the band. You can negotiate to go in at the top of the band. It is however impossible to go in at the next band up unless the job is re-banded. I have very occasionally seen people go in at the band above the advertised rate but only at Chief Officer level.

In our local authority you would need an exceptional circumstance to recruit at anything above the bottom of the pay scale (unless coming over from another LA within the same pay band). Candidates do sometimes ask - despite it being very clear in all the application docs - and it’s always no

She can look forward to years of below-inflation pay rises too; although the move up the band does compensate for this in the early days

Other councils advertising similar jobs elsewhere on the pay scale works

You can sometimes get the job regraded.

Mmmm I'm not sure the above is right for a contractor - is she employed directly by the council or via umbrella company? What's her status? I think you can ask for what you want at the contract renewal stage, not that you'll necessarily get it (probably not) but not sure it would hurt your chances to ask. If I asked for anything, I'd make it small though. And if you want the job even without the payrise, I'd tread warily. They might just look for someone else who's happy with their budget I suppose.

She's an employee on a fixed term contract, not a contractor.

The below inflation pay rises is comparatively a good thing right now. It's pretty common in the private sector to get a pay freeze or threatened with redundancy at the moment. At least in the public sector there is strength in numbers and it's unionised so you're well placed so negotiate at least some level of pay rise as opposed to bugger all. Job security in the public sector is much better currently too. (And obviously the pension is a gazillion times better than pretty much every private sector pension).

Oh yeah sorry - I read that wrong.

Of course you can negotiate your pay in the public sector! I've done it a number of times. Wait until you've been offered the role. You will be restricted to your band so make sure you know the pay points in your band beforehand.

She can but ask, especially if she can point to any value added. Recruitment is a pain in the arse, they may be willing to negotiate rather than replace her.