FY2017 PROPOSED BUDGET

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Proposed Fiscal Year 2017 Budget
Appendix B
Appendix B Human Capital Summary
Human capital management is a way of defining and categorizing employees’ skills and abilities
and ensuring that those skills and abilities are used to accomplish the goals and objectives of the
organization. At Metro, the management of human capital involves workforce planning and
investment, and it is aligned with the strategic plan and integrated with the core mission of
operating and maintaining a safe, reliable, and effective transit system.
Human capital is measured not only by the number of people employed, but also by the various
costs associated with such employment, often referred to as personnel costs. Metro’s personnel
costs fall into two major categories: labor and fringe benefits.
Labor costs, which include regular wage and overtime pay for operations employees, as well as
salary expense for management, professional, and administrative personnel, make up
approximately 69.0 percent of total personnel costs. The proposed Authority-wide FY2017 labor
budget is $1.1 billion.
Fringe benefit costs are the personnel-related expenses incurred by an employer that are above and
beyond the direct cost of employee wages and salaries. Metro’s fringe benefits are comprised of
health insurance and pension plans required by collective bargaining agreements to retain a
professional workforce. Fringe benefits also include government mandated costs such as
unemployment insurance and payroll taxes. The proposed Authority-wide FY2017 fringe benefit
budget is $503.0 million. FY2017 proposed budget is $13.8 million less than FY2016 due to a 9.0
percent, or $16.5 million, reduction of retirement costs. This reduction was largely the result of
two developments: the provision in the latest negotiated agreement between WMATA and
Amalgamated Transit Union’s Local 689, the bargaining unit for station managers and most
operator and maintenance personnel, whereby the represented employees are now required to
contribute to their retirement plan; and the nonfunding of Other Post Employee Benefits (OPEB),
budgeted at $11 million in FY2016. In the fall of 2015, the Board provided guidance to continue
the current methodology of pay-as-you-go for retiree health insurance costs, in lieu of setting up a
trust to manage the ongoing retiree health care liability.
The following tables provide a detailed, three-year comparison of total human capital requirements
for Metro. The proposed staffing requirement for FY2017 is 13,054, consisting of 11,561
operating positions, 1,455 capital positions and 38 positions funded by reimbursable projects. The
FY2017 proposed budget includes a 0.5 percent increase in headcount (59 positions) over Metro’s
approved headcount for FY2016 primarily due to Safety Management Initiatives. The table below
shows a breakdown, by department, of the staffing levels for FY2015 - FY2017.
B-1