We are a local municipality in Illinois and have been struggling with an objective way to assess when an in-grade pay adjustment is warranted due to a change in job duties that requires the employee to increase or expand the knowledge required to do the job, or there is a greater level of complexity, judgement, and/or decision making involved. 

If an adjustment is justified, we are also finding it challenging to determine what method we should use to determine the amount of the increase based on the significance of the changes, without making it super complicated.  The types of situations that would fall into this category are those where the new responsibilities are not so different from the existing that it would justify promotion to a new pay grade but the duties are different enough that there is a good argument that the employee should be paid a higher wage. 

We want to ensure consistency and equity in our decisions around compensation, rather than just choosing a random percentage and having the supervisor or department head make a good case for the change, and are having a difficult time creating a method that has objectivity but is relatively easy to use and explain to an employee. 

Our research hasn't been very helpful in identifying sample tools or relevant information other than providing some points to consider when developing the tool, and I'm hoping my HR peers can help!

Thanks - Renee