NEW: AUDIT OF CITYWIDE PAY EQUITY

On November 4, 2024, the Office of the City Auditor issued a Performance Audit of Citywide Pay Equity.

This audit aimed to identify if there were significant differences in pay among City employees by race and gender and the potential drivers of these differences.

The audit found that differences in pay among City employees across different demographic groups were largely due to the compensation terms of their job classifications. City employees’ job classifications are likely influenced by “occupational sorting,” a term that describes how people may work within specific fields and industries based on widespread norms about work and society, often stemming from historical and societal discrimination.

When adjusting for job classifications, the audit found no differences in base pay across different demographic groups. Within select non-sworn job classifications, men and women were similarly represented among high and low earners. Within the Police and Fire departments, women were significantly underrepresented in sworn positions and earned less overtime pay.

We made seven recommendations to the City Administration to continue current approaches and adopt additional approaches to improving employee representation within job classifications and pay equity across the City through small improvements to hiring, training, job postings, data access, and coordination with the DRE.

Read the full report here.

NEW: AUDIT RECOMMENDATION FOLLOW-UP REPORT AS OF JUNE 30, 2024.

On October 16, 2024, the Office of the City Auditor released its second semiannual Audit Recommendation Follow-Up Report. This report provides the statuses of all open audit recommendations as of June 30, 2024, and summarizes 275 unique recommendations from 44 performance audits dating back to 2014.

Our new report format, introduced in the first semiannual report issued in March 2024, aims to keep the City Administration, residents, elected officials, and other stakeholders informed about the implementation status of all open audit recommendations. This second report reveals that the City Administration has implemented 115, or only 42 percent, of all recommendations. Of the 147 recommendations that remain open, 66 have been partially implemented.

I invite Oaklanders to support our Office’s follow-up on audit recommendations. Our recently released newsletter contains details on how you can help!