Overview of Salary Classification

Establishing salaries for staff members requires four distinct steps:

1. Define job classification based on responsibilities.

2. Determine additional responsibilities required of a person outside of job description.

3. Define salary range based on market assessment

4. Place person based on seniority and level of responsibility.


1. Define the job classifications in the organization by their level of responsibility.

Specialized skills or knowledge required for the job:
Knowledge of key issues:
Legal knowledge
Specific conservation knowledge
Specific development knowledge
Membership development
Major donor fundraising
Foundation grant proposal writing
Special events
Specific administrative knowledge
Computer hardware/software applications
Facilities management
Accounting or financial management
Connections to:
- administrative and congressional/legislative leaders and their staff
- media contacts
- key allies and people within the movement

Budget Authority:
Responsibility to estimate revenue and/or expenses for a program
Responsible ensure achievement of revenues/expenses projections

Supervisory Authority:
Responsibility to hire and fire
Responsibility to provide on-going supervision
Responsibility for annual evaluations
Responsibility for working directly with the board with a key portion of their work

Involvement in management decisions:
Responsibility for creating major plans or policies for organization that support goals
Responsible for creating organizational strategies to achieve goals
Responsible for managing all aspect of a program

Difficulty in conditions in which work is performed:
Requirement for specific location for work
Requirements for travel, other impacts on personal life

Below are examples of several job classifications within a single organization:

Directors – supervision responsibility, budget authority, overarching management decisions.

Program Coordinator II – specialized skill or responsibility, limited supervision.

Program Coordinator I – program coordination, ability to work autonomously.

Administrators – administrative oversight for some program or area.

Assistants – support to programs or individuals.

2. Determine additional responsibilities required for a person outside of job description.
Some positions will be given additional responsibilities that require specialized training and skills, greater levels of authority, unusual or difficult working conditions, and more experience. These responsibilities provide additional salary for the duration of that responsibility. If the job changes to no longer include the additional responsibility, the salary will be reduced accordingly.

3. Define salary range for position based on market assessment and budget constraints.
Salary ranges are divided into eight steps. Steps are used for providing salary increases based on length of service. Employees in probation would not receive a step increase until they have been taken off probation.

Start at base

Six months Step One

One year Step Two

Three years Step Three

Five years Step Four

Seven years Step Five

Nine years Step Six

Eleven years Step Seven

Thirteen years Step Eight

When initial hiring takes place, the Director has the discretion to place a new employee into the salary range based on previous experience applicable to the ONRC position. Once in that job placement, increases will be made in the same two-year intervals.

When the budget provides opportunities for salary increases, salary ranges for all positions are raised together.

4. Place a person within salary range based on seniority/experience (not performance).
· Seniority is key determinant to placement. This can be based both on work within the organization and with similar organizations where the experience is transferable. The Executive Director should determine how much previous experience translates to work within the organization. This is one of the few variable that can be used in negotiating salaries with a new employee.
· Combine the salary level of a person with different job descriptions based on the percentage of time spent with each job. For example a person who works 75% of her time on $40,000 level and 25% of her time at the $50,000 would get a salary of $42,500.
· Additional salary within budget applied uniformly to all staff, either as bonuses (when additional funding is temporary) or salary increases (when additional funding can be sustained).