Is CA’s Compensation Structure Equitable?
Council Corner
As Columbia Association (CA) starts closing pools for the season—the last day for several pools is August 9—I would like to thank all of the lifeguards and staff who work hard to keep the pools operating each year. Several pools will close two weeks before Howard County Public School System students return to class and four weeks before the Labor Day holiday, shortening what many residents consider the traditional summer pool season. The work of the lifeguards and staff is critical to building community in Columbia, and they should be compensated equitably. However, as shown in the chart below, while the top five CA executives make considerably more than their Reston counterparts, CA’s lifeguard salaries lag behind.
The top five employees at CA make a combined $1,364,000, while the top employees at Reston only make a combined $925,000, for a difference of $439,000. While the top five employees at CA make nearly 50% more than Reston’s top five, CA’s starting lifeguards make 10% less than Reston’s. CA is failing its commitment to equity when it pays its CEO more than the president of the United States while paying its lifeguards just 25 cents over the county’s minimum wage.
If CA’s five highest employees were paid at the same level as Reston’s, CA could easily afford to start each lifeguard at $18 per hour. The aquatics department is budgeted to employ 113 full-time equivalent staff during the year, which equates to approximately 235,000 hours (though some of these hours are central office positions and not pool staff). Paying each aquatics staff member an extra $1.75 per hour would cost a little over $400,000, which is still less than the difference between CA’s five highest staff and Reston’s. CA needs to serve the entire community—not just its corporate executives.
The problem goes beyond equity. By paying its lifeguards less, it makes recruiting new lifeguards more difficult to staff all 23 pools. Perhaps this is why CA is pushing to spend more than a million dollars to replace a pool with a splash pad. Pools were built into the fabric of Columbia specifically to promote equity and inclusion at a time when other municipalities were removing them in order to prevent integration. Removing pools in less affluent neighborhoods, because CA is unwilling to recruit lifeguards at competitive salaries—and charging residents high fees to use the remaining pools for only part of the summer—is a step backward in time.
Eric Greenberg is the River Hill Representative to Columbia Council. Email: riverhill@villageofriverhill.org.
Disclaimer: This column reflects the views of Eric Greenberg only and not those of the Columbia Council or the River Hill Board of Directors.
