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Job Evaluation

At Fræðagarður, the wages of members who work for the City of Reykjavík and other local authorities are based on the one hand on a central collective agreement and on the other hand a special job evaluation.

The Job Evaluation System

  • The job evaluation is called SAMSTARF and is a coordinated job evaluation system
  • It is used to evaluate the jobs of members of BHM member organizations that have agreed on job evaluation in their collective agreements
  • The Project Office for Job Evaluations is responsible for job evaluation for Samband íslenskra sveitarfélaga and the City of Reykjavík
  • See the detailed information on the website of the Project Office for Job Evaluations.
  • The job evaluation is only a job ranking system and not a system for evaluating what is "fair" wage wise.
  • The system is based on objective criteria that are used to compare jobs in accordance with the requirements of the jobs, regardless of the qualifications of those who perform them.
  • The goal of job evaluation is to ensure that employees' wages are determined using as factual and objective methods as possible and should lead to jobs being ranked in such a way that the basic wages are the same for jobs that are evaluated as equally demanding, regardless of job position, union or gender.

Job evaluation is:

  • An analysis tool that evaluates the relative importance of jobs based on certain criteria.
  • A method for making uniform assessments of different jobs.
  • A method for making the criteria for wage decisions visible.
  • A way to determine the same wage for similar and equally valuable jobs.

Job evaluation is not:

  • Assessment of personal competence of employees at work.
  • Assessment of the success of employees at work.
  • Assessment of employee performance at work.

Assessment of a Job

  • The ranking of jobs in a job evaluation is the responsibility of the job evaluation committee, which is made up of 3 employer representatives and 3 trade union representatives.
  • It is important to re-evaluate jobs regularly in order to follow changes or developments in jobs.
  • It is always possible to request a job re-evaluation if an employee or a group of employees feels that the evaluation of the job is not correct in individual aspects, or that the evaluation does not cover the area og competence and/or scope of the job in question.

Job evaluation is based on:

  • Job evaluation interview.
  • Completed job evaluation questionnaire.
  • Job description.
  • Other job information obtained from the relevant institution.

Structure of evaluation:

  • Knowledge and skills (38.4%)
  • Load (25.4%)
  • Responsibility (31.2%)
  • Environment (5%)
  • The 13 subsections are then divided into 5-8 steps (total 77 steps in the system)
  • The subsections are based on a definition that includes a list of requirements that a job must meet in order to be evaluated at that step
  • Each step gives a certain number of points and finally the total points of the job are calculated based on the combined points of all elements
  • This number is then calculated into a wage table based on a connection rule and is called stipend.

The Job Evaluation Interview

  • There are a total of 677 closed questions in the system.
  • It is assumed that an employee in a job evaluation has to answer between 80-100 questions.
  • Each job evaluation interview takes 2-3 hours.
  • A representative of the relevant BHM member association is present during the job evaluation interview.
  • This individual helps the employee, has an overview of the jobs in the workplace/social area.

Further Reading

Fræðagarður Assistance

If you still have questions that have not been answered above, we encourage you to contact the office of Fræðagarður.

You can submit a query, for example regarding general questions about labour law and wage issues.

You can also create a formal service request that is automatically entered into our case file system, for example for complex or sensitive cases.

Finally, you can book a call with a specialist, if you think it is more appropriate.

The Fræðagarður service office is located at Borgartún 6 (same building as BHM). It is open every weekday from 09-12 and 13-16. The phone number is 595 5165.