I was talking to my manager yesterday; he said that the ten step system is supposed to be completed in ten years. So one step per year. He didn't know anything about pay tiers changing though.
Some newsletters going out to stations say the same thing. OK, not so much newsletters as they are rah-rah letters before the SFA addressing some of the bigger issues of last year's SFA.
The one I have raht-cheer in front of me says that we will transition to step progression program for everyone that is 7I and above. It also states that these steps will be hit on an annual schedule and that employees will hit top of range in no more than 10 years.
Three ways it could be implemented come October:
1) Employees who've been here 10 years are more are topped out. Those who aren't will have their length of employment subtracted from 10 and have their pay adjusted to the corresponding step, and will top out when they hit 10 years. For example, an 8 year employee will have his pay adjusted to the 8th step, and will top out in 2 more years. Obviously this would be very popular.
2) Each employee will have his length of service thrown into a formula to determine which step he should be on in the progression and then go from there. This could be decent, I guess, depending on how it is administered.
3) Each employee's current rate of pay will be bumped up to the next step in the progression and then go from there. I can't see this being received very well by anyone other than new hires at bottom of range.
The paperwork I have says that each employee will top out in a "maximum of 10 years," but that could easily mean 10 years from the start of the step plan. This will be expensive no matter which option is used, so there will be an offset somewhere (FPP elimination was part of it) which could be a reduction in the number of market levels.
It could be structured like Southwest's ramp agent step plan was (and still is, I think). There was a 15 year plan, and around $15 or $16 difference between bottom and top. The difference between day one and the 14th step was around $11 and you got a huge raise on the last step. It wouldn't be surprising for our plan to be more heavily weighted toward the latter steps.