Elon council adopts bonus for staff with college degrees

Elon’s town council has agreed to pay out an annual bonus of $2,000 to $5,000 to any municipal staff member who has a college degree that exceeds the minimum qualifications which their position demands.

Earlier this month, the council voted 4-to-0 to offer this “degree bonus” to all of the town’s full-time staff members. This fringe benefit, which is already available to the town’s police force, will be paid out regardless of whether the degree in question is even pertinent to what they do for the town.

Under this newly-approved policy, a staff member would receive $2,000 a year for an associate’s degree that their position doesn’t require, $3,000 for a non-mandatory bachelor’s degree, and $5,000 for a master’s which exceeds what they need for the job.

Elon’s town manager Richard Roedner insisted that some cities and towns are already offering a similar benefit to staff members, which he said has put Elon at a disadvantage as it struggles to recruit the best and the brightest. Roedner added that most municipalities with degree bonuses give eligible employees a percentage bump in their salaries – a practice that he said results in escalating costs with each passing year.

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Roedner subsequently informed The Alamance News that this sort of percentage-based bonus is currently available in Graham, Burlington, and Gibsonville. He added that, as of last year, the salary topper in Burlington and Gibsonville amounted to 2.5 percent a year regardless of what kind of non-mandatory degree the employee had.  Meanwhile, in Graham, an employee with an elective degree could expect to receive an additional 5 percent per annum

During his presentation to the council, Roeder insisted that a flat, annual bonus would be a better deal for the town because the amount of extra compensation wouldn’t accrue as the employee’s salary goes up. He added that, all else being equal, there shouldn’t be any future increases in the $31,000 which he said will be needed to apply the police department’s degree bonuses to the rest of the staff.

Monti Allison, the town’s mayor pro tem, objected to the proposed extension of the degree bonuses to staff members whose educational attainment that has nothing to do with their professional duties. He also pointed out that these bonuses are yet another public sector benefit that has no counterpart in corporate America.

Allison’s observation about the current corporate practice drew a few words of commiseration from Elon’s mayor Emily Sharpe.

“I work in the corporate world,” the mayor added. “I have two master’s degrees, and I do a job that only requires a bachelor’s. But I don’t get any more money.”

Sharpe nevertheless defended the proposed bonuses for their potential to help Elon compete with other public sector employers. Meanwhile, Roedner conceded that the town’s employee policies wouldn’t restrict the degree bonus to job-related areas of study. He added, however, that the policy does place such a restriction on its existing reimbursement for staff members who receive continuing education that pertains to their roles with the town. These employees will ultimately qualify for the degree bonuses once they complete their taxpayer-subsidized course work – as will those who go back to school on their own dime to attain degrees unrelated to their work.

In the end, councilman Randy Orwig embraced the proposed payments as a relatively inexpensive way to make the town more attractive to both current staff members and prospective new hires.

“I think it’s another good benefit,” he added, “and I don’t think it’s going to be a huge impact on our budget.”

The council went on to vote 4-to-0 in favor of the degree bonus in the absence of council member Stephanie Bourland, who wasn’t on hand for Tuesday night’s meeting.

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