Salary survey

Salary Survey 2008: Are Your Benefits Flying South?

This year we reformulated our annual salary survey to learn what keeps you and your colleagues working. We included questions about benefits, job satisfaction, and what respondents would like to see more of in their jobs and their benefits packages. What we discovered may surprise you. . .click here to read the complete article.

Salary Survey 2007: How do you stack up?

When scrutinizing the public works payroll, the focus today is not just on dollars and cents, but on the total compensation package. Like private industry, municipalities fold salary, health insurance, and other benefits into an overall mix.

In January, we asked readers what they do, how long they've been doing it, and if they feel they're being compensated accordingly. We thank the 1300 PUBLIC WORKS readers who chimed in with their information (and their beefs).

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Salary Survey 2006: How much are you worth?

No one ever complains about getting paid too much. But how does your salary really stack up against that of your peers? PUBLIC WORKS magazine wanted to find out. Based on answers from 2600 readers just like you, we have a snapshot of how much money public works employees really make each year.

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Funding forecast

PUBLIC WORKS Special Report: 2007 Forecast

At first glance, the forecast for the year ahead calls for clear skies. But dig a little deeper, and the outlook gets murkier. To get a handle on how public works departments are being financially supported in their efforts to care for the infrastructure, both on a day-to-day level as well as for major improvements, we asked readers in early November to share their 2007 budgetary expectations. We received 440 responses, a 1.4% response rate. Our 2007 Forecast presents those results.

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2006 Public Works Funding Forecast

Developing and monitoring budgets is not the favorite task of most public works professionals. Having the money to operate and develop the infrastructure, though, makes budgeting a necessary evil. For most cities, counties, and states, that evil is a little less onerous for 2006.

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AEC firms

2007 Top AEC Firms Partners in Project Excellence

No man is an island. And neither is an infrastructure manager struggling to balance internal resources with community expectations.

Thus the importance of the relationship between public works departments, which are for the most part generalists, and for-profit firms that specialize in architecture, engineering, construction (AEC), or any combination thereof. Our third annual survey of the use of AEC firms by public agencies shows that this partnership continues to play a key role in the ability of infrastructure managers to meet the needs of their communities.

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2006 Top AEC Firms

Even with rising oil prices, the devastation of hurricanes Rita and Katrina, and rising inflation rates, the level and scope of public works projects completed did not change in 2005.

Many municipalities need help completing projects, whether they're new water treatment plants, building a new bridge, or updating an urban park. According to an exclusive survey of PUBLIC WORKS readers, 92% of municipal public works departments used architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms to complete projects of various types last year. This number has not fluctuated much over the past two years—public works departments heavily rely on these firms to work on one or all aspects of an engineering project.

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2005 Top AEC Firms: Leaders of the Pack

In business today outsourcing is common; public works departments are no different. No department by itself can handle all of the things that are thrown at it—from planning new parks to rebuilding outdated parking facilities to maintaining water treatment plants. Instead of hiring a full-time staff of architects, engineers, or construction managers, public works directors are turning to AEC (architecture, engineering, construction) firms to complete various projects.

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Unions

Coming together

One of the primary reasons public works employees join a union is the strong contracts for benefits and other perks.

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Trenchless technology

Should you ditch the dig?

Although trenchless technology—the science of installing, repairing, or replacing buried pipes with little or no excavation—can be more cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and safer than traditional exhume-and-replace construction, it's still not universally embraced.

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GASB 34 (news)

Wrestling with GASB 34

When the Government Accounting Standards Board issued Statement 34 (more familiarly known as GASB 34) in 1999, it constituted the group's first major change in reporting requirements since 1935. Municipalities all over the country must comply with its demands, and implementers are finding the process to be quite a challenge.

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