Wendell — For people looking for local government jobs in eastern Wake County, Knightdale is the place to be.

The town pays an average salary nearly $6,000 higher than any of the other towns in eastern Wake County.

And if you’re in upper management, the difference is even more striking.

Four of the top five highest-paid local government employees work in Knightdale.

Of course, not everything is so rosy in eastern Wake County’s largest town.

The four lowest salaries paid to town employees are also collected by Knightdale town employees.

And analysis of salaries paid by Knightdale, Wendell and Zebulon shows that all three towns spend roughly the same percentage of their budget for salaries.

In Knightdale salaries total $2,925,516, or 30.4 percent of the town’s $9.6 million general fund budget. That money pays 57 municipal employees.

In Wendell, 37 employees earn a total of $1,635,879 – 32.6 percent of the town’s general fund budget.

In Zebulon, payroll totals $2,223,123, 32.3 percent of the town’s $6.88 million budget. The town employs 52 people.

In Knightdale, the average salary for all employees is $51,325. Wendell employees, on average, make $45,441. Zebulon employees are the lowest paid workers among the three towns, averaging just $42,752.

Knightdale Town Manager Gary McConkey says the difference comes from how the towns measure their pay scales.

“They’re not paying the Wake County average,” McConkey said. Knightdale does an informal survey annually to see what other towns are paying for jobs similar to theirs.

The survey doesn’t include Raleigh or Cary, McConkey said, because the larger cities tend to skew the average to a point higher than most towns can pay.

McConkey says Wendell and Zebulon salaries are part of his town’s informal survey, but he doesn’t add any special significance to their salary ranges.

“When we lose people, we tend to lose them to Raleigh or Wake County,” McConkey said.

Knightdale, on the other hand, can raid the staffs of Wendell and Zebulon by paying higher salaries.

Knightdale Planning Director Mike Frangos worked in Zebulon before moving to Knightdale. And planner Chris Hills was on the staff in Wendell before accepting a position in Knightdale.

Zebulon Town Manager Rick Hardin says he’d love to pay his employees more, but he says it’s a balancing act.

“You’ve got to weigh what you pay employees against all the other needs you have,” Hardin said.

In Zebulon, residents are expecting their tax rate to increase by as much as eight cents in coming years to help pay off bonds that were sold to purchase the old Wakelon school.

“We’re already raising taxes and there’s just so many times you can go back to the voters to get more money,” Hardin said. “There’s not a manager out there who would tell you he wouldn’t love to pay his employees more.”

But, Hardin says, working in a small town has some benefits that larger cities can’t offer.

“We’re much more family-oriented here. We all know each other. Employees can walk into my office and have a conversation with me anytime they want to,” Hardin said.

In Wendell, Finance Director Butch Kay said the town reviewed its salary structure in 2006 and made adjustments to bring salaries in line with similar positions in other local governments.

That led to an increase of about $25,000 in total payroll, Kay said, and commissioners agreed to fund the increases in a single budget year.

Kay said increases in other years haven’t been tied as tightly to what other towns are doing.

Like Knightdale and Zebulon, Wendell polls other area towns to find out what they are paying in a bid to be competitive. But Kay says it comes down to taking care of employees.

“Our town managers have said we want to take care of our employees first. We look for ways within the budget to do that,” Kay said.

Unlike Knightdale, Wendell officials review salaries in towns within driving distance, under the assumption that an employee would consider a move to, say, Clayton, if it meant they wouldn’t have to move.

While salaries are a significant part of any budget, town officials also pay good benefits. In Zebulon, benefits cost about 25 cents for every dollar paid in salary. In Knightdale, benefits range between 25 and 30 cents on the dollar.

In Wendell, fringe benefits cost about 21 cents per salary dollar.

In Wendell commissioners are being asked to consider a change in the personnel policy that would allow retiring employees to convert excess vacation time to sick time so that it may be cashed in by retiring employees.

If approved, that would add to the town’s benefit costs.

The three towns raise their employees’ salaries in a variety of ways.

In Knightdale, pay raises are based on both merit and increases in the cost of living.

Cost of living allowances, or COLAs, are tied to the Consumer Price Index, which measures the increase in the cost of goods and services from year to year.

Job performance dictates the rest of an employee’s raise. McConkey said the town budgets for a 2.5 percent merit increase for each employee, although not every employee earns a raise that large.

And stellar employees can ge bigger raises. “You really have to do something beyond the pale to earn a raise that’s higher than the 2.5 percent,” McConkey said.

In Wendell, pay raises also come in two steps. Each employee receives a 2.5 percent cost of living increase.

Employees can also receive a 2.5 percent merit increase based on job performance.

In Zebulon, employees are eligible only for merit raises.

“We haven’t given COLAs in several years,” Hardin said. “But we do adjust the salary schedule based on the (Consumer Price Index) and if an employee’s salary falls below the scale then there’s an automatic adjustment. But if you’re doing your job, that shouldn’t happen.”

While employee pay varies widely among the three towns, all three towns can boast one thing. They pay higher wages than other residents make.

Based on U.S. Census data, adjusted for inflation, municipal employees in eastern Wake County make between 27 and 36 percent more than the average wage earner in their towns.

In Knightdale, the average wage based on the 2000 Census was $30,302, or $37,574 in today’s dollars. That’s 27 percent less than the average town employee makes.

In Wendell, the ratio is nearly identical. Town employees make, on average 28 percent more than town residents, whose median salary, based on Census data, was $26,086, or $32,347 after adjusting for inflation.

Zebulon employees, though they make the lowest average salary of any of the three towns, posted the largest difference in salaries from the people they serve.

Census data showed the median salary in Zebulon was $21,947, or $27,214 after inflation. That’s a 36 percent difference in what town employees earn.