InTrans / Jul 07, 2025
Iowa PWSB to launch Salary Survey Reports
Cities encouraged to submit salary data starting with FY 2026
In just four years, the Iowa Public Works Service Bureau (Iowa PWSB) has been fulfilling its mission of connecting cities and providing their staff resources in part through offering to its 760 members a variety of reports: financial, street, bridge condition, bid tabulation, and Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT), among other pieces of valuable information.
In order to offer its members even more, Iowa PWSB staff has been collecting salary data from cities since March in order to provide Salary Survey Reports on its website. The Iowa PWSB is encouraging cities of all sizes to submit their salary data starting with fiscal year 2026 to help generate the data for the reports.
“If you’ve ever wondered what other cities are paying their public works employees but don’t have the budget for an expensive compensation study, the Iowa PWSB wants to help you,” said Iowa PWSB Program Specialist Beth Richards. “But first we need your data!”
Cities interested in submitting their salary data must specify whether they’ve got a population under or over 10,000 and then provide some basic contact information before entering either salaried or hourly data by position and the pay range. Information can be submitted via an online form or Excel file.
Cities’ employees must be Iowa PWSB members and logged in to submit their data; however, joining is free, and allows city staff to access all of the Iowa PWSB’s resources.
Once enough data have been collected to put together and share the Salary Survey Reports on the Iowa PWSB website, cities will still be encouraged to submit their information to make the reports more robust.
“These reports will provide cities comprehensive data on local compensation trends across various categories and job roles. They’ll provide valuable insights for businesses and professionals to assess competitive pay structures and make informed decisions,” Richards said.
The Iowa PWSB reports currently available are also updated regularly. The Street Reports were updated last fall, the Financial Reports were updated in March, and the Bridge Condition Report will soon be updated. Also, the Bid Tabulation Report currently contains over 600 bids and more are constantly being added.
More information about the Iowa PWSB and some of its resources, such as the job board and training opportunities, are available to non-members at https://www.iowapwsb.org/; however, to fully experience the website and all the service bureau offers, consider becoming a member and joining for free today.