SCRANTON — Lackawanna County commissioners recently awarded a contract for a grant-funded salary study probing employee pay, positions, titles, county job descriptions and more in the interest of improving recruitment, retention, parity and competitiveness.
Describing the pending project as the county’s “first major compensation study,” Human Resources Director Jenna Strzelecki-Eagen told commissioners last week that the comprehensive assessment will evaluate county salaries “in comparison to the market and various markets similar to Lackawanna County.”
Baker Tilly Advisory Group LP, the firm commissioners unanimously agreed to hire for the study, will meet with county department heads to “assess positions, titles, refine job descriptions and ensure job tasks and duties are accurately reflected by each department,” Strzelecki-Eagen said. “Baker Tilly will create a comprehensive pay plan that will include revised pay structures, pay-equity data and accurately revised job descriptions. They’ll also create a career ladder to help with upward-mobility paths for various departments and job families … for the future of the county.”
The salary study and compensation review is consistent with and will support a number of workforce management initiatives in the multiyear financial management plan that PFM Group Consulting LLC created for the county pursuant to its participation in Pennsylvania’s Strategic Management Planning Program. That program, which county officials secured entry into in early 2024, provides matching grants to help counties and municipalities experiencing fiscal difficulties develop financial management plans and “establish short- and long-term financial objectives.”
County Commissioner Thom Welby makes remarks at the Lackawanna County Government Center in Scranton on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO)
A $131,250 STMP grant awarded this past summer through the state Department of Community and Economic Development will cover the cost of the salary study, Strzelecki-Eagen said, noting the project is estimated to take about six months. It was the latest grant the county received through the state program, which previously delivered funds county officials used to engage and retain PFM.
On the salary study front, Baker Tilly will “provide employee allocation and implementation calculations and strategies with guidance from PFM to ensure the county has financial stability while trying to implement parts of the plan slowly over time,” Strzelecki-Eagen said. “There’ll be a final report provided to leadership and everything will culminate in a final presentation of their findings and the action plan.”
Commissioner Bill Gaughan emphasized the breadth of the county’s workforce in backing the compensation review, noting its roster includes hundreds of positions tasked with very different and often complex duties.
“Over time salaries, job descriptions, titles and responsibilities often change,” he said. “People leave, new positions might be created, duties can evolve, and if you don’t as a county periodically step back and look at the entire system you can end up with inequities, salary compression, outdated job descriptions and positions that simply aren’t competitive in today’s labor market, and I think that’s some of our major problems here in the county.”
“That eventually costs taxpayers money too, because when we cannot retain or recruit qualified employees, we spend money constantly advertising, hiring and retraining people while the employees who remain are asked to carry more of the workload,” he continued. “What I really like about this study is that it isn’t simply asking ‘should everybody get a raise?’ That’s not what this is. It’s asking: ‘What is the job, what are the responsibilities, what should that position reasonably be worth? How does it compare internally and how does it compare to the market?’”
Another important element of the study is that it should help identify “clear pathways for people to move up in different departments,” Commissioner Chris Chermak said, an apparent reference to the “career ladder” Strzelecki-Eagen mentioned.
“Sometimes when people leave or retire it gets a little confusing, so … the path moving up the chain certainly will make things a little easier and make it better for us, because we have people here that know exactly what they’re doing and what’s going on in these departments,” Chermak said.
Endorsing his colleagues’ remarks, Commissioner Thom Welby said it will be good to compare county salaries against averages elsewhere. Baker Tilly will work with county officials to establish a list of comparable peer organizations to include in the assessment and will issue market reports as part of the project, including a comparison of county compensation ranges to the market range.
“It might be painful for us in the future to a great degree, but it’s only right,” Welby said.
Baker Tilly’s engagement letter puts the estimated total cost of the salary study and compensation review at $104,000.