# Raise request: Sam Okafor, dispatch coordinator

To: Pat | From: Sam Okafor | Date: October 8, 2026

## The ask

Raise my base pay from $48,500 to $55,200 a year: $6,700, or 13.8 percent. I am putting this in writing before we talk so nothing in the meeting is a surprise, and so you have it ahead of the October 30 submission date for the November budget meeting.

## The on-time rate, from my own tracking

- January 12: started tracking late deliveries by route. December's late rate was 14 percent.
- March 3: rebuilt the route sheet so drivers stop doubling back on the east loop.
- June 30: June's late rate was 6 percent. September's was 5 percent, which is 95 percent on time.
- August 19: caught a double-booked truck the night before the Harvest Market order; the order went out on time.

Limits: my notes record only December, June, and September. I will pull the other months from the route tracking and send them before October 30. I cannot prove how much of the drop came from the route sheet versus anything else; the change came between the 14 percent and the 6 percent. The "about 9 hours a week across the team" saving is what drivers say, not something I measured.

## Extra duties this year

- April to May: covered for you for six weeks during your leave. Ran the morning call, approved overtime, handled two customer complaints.
- July: trained three new drivers (Ines, Marco, Dee). All three are still here.

Your 2025 review said "Needs to delegate more and stop doing everything yourself." Training those three drivers is the one step toward that in my notes. It is not enough yet. Next year I want handing off work to be one of my goals, and I want you to judge me on it.

## Why $55,200, and the budget

The number comes from the Lantern Hollow Regional Wage Survey, 2026 edition (41 employers, base pay only), for my role with 2 to 5 years in role: 25th percentile $49,800, median $55,200, 75th percentile $61,000. I have been here 3 years. I am at $48,500, $1,300 below the 25th percentile, and my last raise was 3 percent, 2 years ago.

You have said market surveys "don't know our margins." That is fair, and I do not see our margins, so I cannot show that $55,200 fits them. I use the survey only to show where the floor is. The case for me is the on-time rate above, which is the number on our wall.

The survey's median for coordinators who also train drivers or cover supervisor duties is $58,400. I am not asking for it: my supervisor cover was one six-week stretch and the training was one round in July, not ongoing duties.

The owner said in July that budgets are "tight until the holiday season." If the November meeting cannot carry the full amount right away, I would rather have $55,200 approved in November with a start date after the holiday season than a smaller number now.

Sam Okafor

## Objections answered

1. Number rests on a survey Pat dismissed: conceded in "Why $55,200," which names the limit and rests the case on the on-time rate.
2. Owner said budgets are tight: "Why $55,200, and the budget," last paragraph, offers a start date after the holiday season.
3. 95 percent is one month: conceded in "Limits"; other months to follow before October 30; cause not proven.
4. Review asked for delegation: "Extra duties," last paragraph, concedes it and makes delegation next year's goal.
5. $58,400 rests on one-time duties: conceded in "Why $55,200"; not requested.
6. 9 hours is drivers' word: conceded in "Limits."