Commissioners discuss pay plan, make no decisions
Staff writer
County commissioners held a special Thursday meeting to mull over a pay plan proposed by consultants, but ended up tabling the subject to a later date.
The plan, done by McGrath Human Resources Group and presented to commissioners in September, proposed increasing starting pay and market pay for employees already making below-market wages, annual raises, and consistent step increases.
It also would create 16 pay steps instead of 10.
Commissioners looked at current wages and positions of each employee and compared those with McGrath’s proposal.
Commissioner Dianne Novak was concerned that some employees are paid as much as $4 per hour less than comparable positions in other counties, and thinks those employees who are underpaid by a wider margin should get raises sooner to put them in the ballpark.
Then the pay plan can be put into place, Novak said.
“We have some people who are considerably low, and my thought is to
pay
from page one
bump them up,” Novak said.
She suggested commissioners give those raises and return their attention to the pay plan in a year.
Novak also said she didn’t get all the information county clerk Tina Spencer presented to commissioners before the meeting.
Spencer said she didn’t have time to complete the comparison chart provided to commissioners until Wednesday afternoon, and she’d sent it to them as soon as possible.
Chairman Kent Becker said the pay plan needed to be something employees can understand so commissioners don’t have to deal with employees on an individual basis.
Commissioner Randy Dallke said he wants the county’s pay plan to factor in longevity, so employees cannot complain that a new employee is paid the same as a longstanding employee.
“Personally, myself, I have to have time to research this,” Novak said.
Commissioners decided to look further at the pay plan at a later date.