Introduction

The issue of remuneration equity is an issue that has grappled the world of work for a very long time as it has an impact on people' s levels of disposable incomes and consequently their overall standards of living. Zimbabwe experienced unprecedented levels of hyperinflation during the first decade of the 21st millennium. The economic meltdown that prevailed in Zimbabwe during the first decade of the new millennium, has had a severe impact on the standard of living of the general populace. The earnings of the majority of working class people were severely eroded. The official introduction of a multi- currency system in 2009 saw the country adopt the United States dollar and the South African rand, as the major forms of legal tender.. Chaminuka Rural District Council (CRDC), was established in 1993 in accordance with the provisions of the Rural District Council Act. The council has jurisdiction over Shamva district of Mashonaland Province of Zimbabwe .The council has a mandate of providing infrastructure such as roads, schools, hospitals, clinics, boreholes and bridges, recreational facilities, social services. It also services land for both commercial and residential purposes within the context of sustainable environmental practices. Council is heavily dependent on traditional sources of revenue which include property and land taxes, user charges, grants, sand sales, beer sales and loans from the central government. The growth of Shamva district, over the years ,has seen an increase in staff being employed by council and currently has a staff compliment of seventy seven (77) permanent and six (6) contract employees. Casual employees are hired as and when the need arises. Recent economic developments in the country have resulted in the Council experiencing numerous staff remuneration related problems. Between 2006 and 2007, Council minutes highlighted that remuneration issues were at the centre of the management- staff discourse. Minutes from exit interviews also indicated that during the same period council lost about 35 (49%) of its staff to other organisations within and outside Zimbabwe.The Zimbabwe Local Government Association (ZILGA) has been involved in job evaluation exercises for all local authorities in the country. In spite of these efforts, Councils in the country continue to experience marginal levels of remuneration inequities that are mainly brought about by differences in council's cash flow situations. The overall benefit structures of local authorities in the country vary significantly as levels of cash flow and resource mobilisation in local authorities has been a significant determinant of the frequency with which staff is remunerated. Late payment of CRDC staff on quite a number of occasions has exacerbated staff dissatisfaction and greatly influenced the staff perception of remuneration equity as reflected in the works co uncil's meetings minutes.

Literature Review

Remuneration

Remuneration is the payment of services offered by a person whether on contract or permanent basis. Remuneration is a component of both financial and non-financial reward (Armstrong 2009). Financially, it is in terms of cash and benefits received and non-financially, it is in terms of status and esteem.

Remuneration Relativity

Equity in remuneration is measured according to internal relativity (between jobs in an organisation), interpersonal relativity (between people in an organisation) and external relativity (between jobs inside and outside the organisation).

Job Evaluation

Job evaluation methods are used for establishing internal equity. They are used as basis of remuneration system implementation. There are four job evaluation methods which are job ranking, grading, point method and factor comparison.

Job Ranking

Job ranking is the simplest way of evaluating the job. It entails the comparison of jobs with one another without the use of explicit compensable factors. …