Knightdale — Private sector jobs pay more than similar jobs in the public sector according to information from human resources’ studies. But it’s hard to make neat job comparisons because of the different nature of duties.

Chief operating officers of companies with roughly the number of employees as the towns of Knightdale, Wendell and Zebulon start at $333,484 annually and salaries can go as high as $954,642.

Compare that to Knightdale Town Manager Gary McConkey’s $109,366, Wendell Town Manager David Bone’s $85,000 and Zebulon Town Manager Rick Hardin’s $86,681.

Data from the private sector salaries comes from the Web site Salary.com with information gathered by human resource consulting firms across the country, said Sue Murphy, executive director of the National Human Resources Association.

The Web site does not have a way to compare variables such as budget size.

“That’s as close as you can get with a comparison, but it’s still not an apples to apples comparison,” said Wendell town manager David Bone. “Generally private sector positions are higher in salary. Most folks in the public sector do not work for money only. There is a desire to give back to the community, a desire to make a difference.”

But money does play a role, according to one human resources professional.

“Generally speaking, public sector jobs need to be competitive with private sector jobs, but they aren't paying the high end salaries,” said Molly Hegeman, a human resources consultant with Capital Associated Industries. CAI is a human resources consulting firm headquartered in Raleigh.

“If you think about a town manager — what kind of skill sets — they could easily go out in the private sector and make a whole lot more money,” she said.

Chief financial officers from private sector companies in the employee range of the three eastern Wake County towns make from $162,892 to $448,603. Knightdale’s finance director Ren Wiles earns $79,796 annually while Wendell’s finance director Butch Kay earns $64,781. Zebulon’s finance director Emily Lucas brings home $64,472.

Knightdale has 57 employees, Wendell has 38 employees and Zebulon, 51 employees.

Civil engineers in like-sized companies earn from $83,324 to $132,110. Knightdale’s engineer, Keith Gifford, earns $76,609. Wendell and Zebulon contract out their engineering services.

A human resource generalist at salary.com, the closest job description to Knightdale’s human resources director who also serves as a clerk, which wasn’t considered in the salary estimation, ranged from $33,464 to $100,543. Knightdale’s human resource director/clerk earns $74,427.

Administrative assistants in the private sector most readily matching the public sector jobs earn from $26,559 to $42,227. Knightdale’s administrative assistant earns $31,741.

Wendell and Zebulon don’t have administrative assistants, but their clerks perform administrative work and other duties such as recording minutes at all town meetings. Wendell’s clerk makes $53,248. Zebulon’s clerk earns $45,192.

Knightdale Town Manager Gary McConkey said when the town undergoes a pay and classification review, a common practice by municipalities to determine salaries, private sector jobs are not considered.

“Most of our jobs don’t translate, some do,” he said. “There’s nothing at all in the private sector the same as a police.”

McConkey said the attractive state of North Carolina benefits that all municipal employees receive draw some people to the public sector.

“The retirement in the public sector is usually a little better so that makes up for lower salaries,” he said.

Wendell’s Bone, similarly, said in towns’ pay and classification studies private sector jobs are not included.

Those studies do look at comparisons between other towns’ salaries. But he noted that job descriptions, not jobs, were used to make comparisons between public sector jobs in Wendell.

“Traditionally we haven’t focused on that because the responsibilities are so different,” he said. “It’ll be hard to compare an administrative assistant from one company to another without knowing what your job descriptions are.”

Knightdale is the only town with a custodian on staff. That salary of $21,080 compares to like private companies, some that pay as little as $17,842 as a beginning salary to $24,479 as the high.

The American Planning Association’s 2006 survey found planners working for private firms across the nation made from between $54,000 to $92,000. Planners working for development firms across the United States earned between $60,000 and $108,000.

Planning salaries in the three eastern Wake County towns vary. The Wendell planner earned $43,576. Knightdale has two Planner IIs on staff, a higher pay classification than a beginning planner. Their salaries range from $50,871 to $60,742. Zebulon’s planner earns $35,956.

The study also found that in North Carolina, private sector planning directors who were white male with master’s degrees and AICP certification, five to nine years experience, managing three to four people in cities over 100,000 made on average $74,900.

Non-white males with all other criteria the same made less – on average $71,600. And white female directors with the same credentials earned an average salary of $72,100 while non-white female directors made on average $68,700.

“Good benefits and liking where you work is also part of the equation,” said Zebulon Town Manager Rick Hardin.

“We’re small enough where our employees are still individuals to us. We know them. “We’re a progressive town and have a lot of responsibilities that employees in Raleigh or Wake County would have. Can we compete financially with the Carys and the Holly Springs? Of course not. But there are a lot of positive things about living in eastern Wake County and working for a town our size.”