Decade of staff expansion, reduction in pay budgets from FY 2024
Hyattsville proposes adding over 20 new approved positions in FY 2025, but average pay budget drops on a per-employee basis
Between 2016 and 2024, Hyattsville added over 50 new staff positions, and the original fiscal year 2025 budget book proposes adding another 21.5 new full-time equivalent roles (FTE), bringing the total proposed staff count to 184, not including the mayor, city council, and election board members. The police and public works departments, which have the largest staffs, added the most new roles in the past decade, but smaller department headcounts have also surged. Communications went from 0.35 FTEs in FY 2016 to 3 in FY 2025, the human resources department has grown from one staff member to four, and the number of positions in the community development and recreation departments more than doubled.
While staff positions and the pay budgets, including overtime, have increased, proposed average pay budget per staff role has declined from FY 2024. Average pay budgets have also not kept pace with inflation since FY 2016, and some of Hyattsville’s lowest paid staff have annual salaries below the lowest pay bands in neighboring municipalities, according to publicly available salary data from GovSalaries.
In FY 2024, Hyattsville budgeted $84,862 in wages and overtime pay per FTE, but proposes $77,883 per role in FY 2025, an 8% decrease. The city has a separate line item for a 2% cost-of-living adjustment in the FY 2025 budget. City staff have previously stated that when staff plans wage budgets, they may only budget a partial year salary for open positions based on when they expect to fill the role. City Administrator Tracey Douglas wrote in the FY 2025 budget transmittal letter that “employee salaries and benefits continue to consume the most significant portion of the General Fund Budget.”
City laborer wages lower than nearby municipalities, most public works divisions see per-position cuts
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Route One Finance to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.