Methodology Preview:Functional families and class counts are modeled to the City of Gainesville's ~570 classifications and ~1,500 employees per RFP HRDX-260051-WB. Salary, benefit, and pension figures shown here are illustrative, with production data populated from the City HRIS, the City's pension plans, the collective bargaining agreements, and the Florida comparator jurisdictions' adopted pay plans at engagement award.

HSG Methodology Demo

City of Gainesville · RFP HRDX-260051-WB

Comparator Pool

A Florida public-sector comparator pool

RFP §2.2 asks for a market pay review with an emphasis on public-sector comparators. We build a Florida peer pool weighted to full-service cities that run the same operations Gainesville does, transit, public safety, utilities, and general government, so a Transit Operator, a Police Officer, and an Engineer are each benchmarked against real peers. The pool spans Tallahassee, Ocala, Lakeland, Clearwater, Cape Coral, Palm Bay, Melbourne, Daytona Beach, Boca Raton, Sarasota, and Kissimmee, plus Alachua County as the overlapping home-market employer. The City may add or refine jurisdictions at kickoff. Each row in the chart is keyed to that jurisdiction's adopted Pay/Classification Plan, with Gainesville = 100.

Comparator jurisdictions

12 + self

Population range

54K to 278K

Workforce range

~900 to ~3,900

Show base-salary index for:

JurisdictionRegion / rolePopulationApprox FTE
City of Gainesville (self)North Central FL · Self (~570 classes, multi-union)141,085~1,500
City of TallahasseeCapital region · Full-service city + StarMetro transit + utility196,169~3,900
City of OcalaNorth Central FL · Full-service city + SunTran transit + utility63,591~1,600
City of LakelandCentral FL · Full-service city + Citrus Connection + utility112,641~2,600
City of ClearwaterTampa Bay · Full-service coastal city117,292~1,850
City of Cape CoralSouthwest FL · Large full-service city194,016~1,900
City of Palm BaySpace Coast · Full-service city119,760~1,050
City of MelbourneSpace Coast · Full-service city + airport84,678~1,150
City of Daytona BeachNortheast FL · Full-service city72,647~1,250
City of Boca RatonSoutheast FL · High-cost full-service city97,422~1,700
City of SarasotaGulf Coast · Full-service city54,842~950
City of KissimmeeCentral FL · Full-service city79,226~900
Alachua CountyHome county · Overlapping labor market (RTS/UF region)278,468~2,400

Function-matched, not just size-matched

A compensation comparator is only useful if it employs the same kind of work. Gainesville is unusual for its size: it runs a regional transit system, sworn police and fire on Chapter 175/185 pensions, a municipal airport, a championship golf course, and (through the GRU relationship) a large utility footprint. Our pool leans on Florida cities that carry the same operations, so RTS Operators benchmark against StarMetro and SunTran, not against cities with no transit at all. Alachua County anchors the local labor market Gainesville actually recruits from and loses staff to.

Authoritative sources, not vendor surveys

Every figure in the comparator database comes from each jurisdiction's adopted Pay/Classification Plan (public record), cross-referenced with Florida League of Cities salary data, Florida Retirement System and local-plan disclosures, and BLS OEWS wage data for the Gainesville and Florida metros. We do not resell proprietary vendor surveys. Every number is sourced and reproducible by the City's HR staff after the engagement.

Index figures illustrative pending production salary-schedule pull. Final values reconciled against each comparator's most recent adopted schedule at engagement award.