GILL — The Selectboard has approved changes to the town’s compensation plan that will make the pay rates for employees more comparable to salaries offered by other municipalities of similar size in the region.
Town Administrator Ray Purington told the Selectboard on Monday that the new wage plan includes six grades and 10 steps, whereas the old plan had eight grades and six steps. He added that the changes were recommended as part of a wage and classification study completed by the Edward J. Collins Jr. Center for Public Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston, with funding from a $13,000 Community Compact grant.
“We started off with the Collins Center doing the wage and salary comparison with surrounding, comparable towns, and reviewing job descriptions,” Purington said.
Purington said the data used for the study was from fiscal year 2025, so when creating the new compensation plan, the 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment that came in FY26 and the 3% adjustment on tap for FY27 were added.
Prior to the work by the Collins Center, a wage and classification study hadn’t been conducted in Gill in roughly two decades.
Under the outdated wage plan, the lowest-paid grade and step offered an hourly rate of $12.15 per hour; however, no town employee made that rate. According to town data, the lowest-paid employees are a group of firefighters who earn $17.51 per hour in FY26. With the new compensation plan, the new lowest rate will be $17.86 per hour, and that group of firefighters will move up to $21.12 per hour.
The highest rate under the old wage plan was $41.44 per hour; with the new plan, the highest rate will be $49.63 per hour. According to data from the town, the two highest-paid employees, the town administrator and highway superintendent, made $41.44 per hour in FY26 and, with the changes to the plan, will make $42.90 per hour.
The Collins Center study found that many of Gill’s pay rates were below market averages. In Gill, the minimum hourly rate for a truck driver/laborer in FY25 was $21.31 and the maximum was $25.89, compared to the market survey average minimum of $22.23 and the average maximum of $26.92. For the position of Board of Assessors assistant, the study found that in Gill, the minimum pay was $24.71 and the maximum was $30.05, compared to the market survey average minimum of $25.61 and maximum of $38.79.
“We are confident that the recommended position descriptions, along with the proposed classification and compensation plan, will provide a strong foundation to support the town’s workforce for many years to come,” the Collins Center wrote in its study report.
With the approval of the new compensation plan, town employees will move to the nearest step on the new scale, which will result in a small raise ranging from a few cents to a few dollars for most employees. Purington said voters approved the funds to implement the new wage plan at Annual Town Meeting.
