About one third of Jefferson County’s government workers will receive a mid-year pay raise, ranging from 2 percent to 4 percent.
The Jefferson County Council voted 6-0 June 27 to approve a new salary schedule that bumps up the pay for about 220 employees.
The county employs as many as 650 people, including full-time, part-time and temporary workers.
Director of Administration David Courtway said the raise, which he is calling a “market adjustment,” will help the county better retain employees and attract new ones to fill open positions.
“Turnover is very costly,” he said.
The council approved spending up to $265,000 for the second half of the year to fund the market adjustments, so the adjustment will cost $530,000 during 2023.
Funding for the raises is available because sales tax revenue, which covers the county government’s day-to-day operations, is up 3.61 percent over the previous year, according to the most recent report from the state Department of Revenue.
In the county budget approved in December, officials conservatively forecast that there would be little to no increase.
“We need to do it (give raises), and we have the money in the budget to do it,” Courtway said. “I think it will get more applicants in. Whether or not we hire those people depends on whether they can do the job. But we need to make adjustments across all pay groups. And I believe the collections and revenues will allow us to continue this scheduled as a full-year expenditure next year.
“But I don’t think we can wait (for next year’s budget),” he said. “We need to make a mid-year adjustment.”
He said the adjustments will affect both incoming and current employees.
“When we modify the grid, it’s going to bump some current people’s salaries up, and we’ll have to compensate them as well,” he said.
The county’s salary schedule, or matrix, lists a minimum, midpoint and maximum for all jobs.
The new schedule allows for any current employee who was making less than the new minimum to be boosted to the new minimum, or 4 percent, whatever figure is higher.
Those workers whose pay was between the minimum but below the new midpoint also received a 4 percent boost.
The workers who were being paid above the newly established midpoint but below the maximum will be given a 2 percent pay increase.
Under the new salary matrix, the starting salary for a custodian is $31,200 a year, up from $22,256.
“All hourly employees will be paid at least $15 per hour,” Courtway said.
With the market adjustment, a starting bookkeeper will be paid a salary of $35,806, up from the current $28,080.
County needs to keep pace with neighbors
Courtway told the council that Jefferson County needs to beef up its pay for county workers to at least keep pace with neighboring counties.
“I think it’s no secret the job market has been a challenge for both the public sector and private sector corporations, and it’s getting worse. Labor participation is probably at its lowest level in decades, maybe at its lowest ever,” he said.
Courtway said at any given time, the county has about 20 vacancies and having a salary schedule that hasn’t been updated other than cost-of-living increases over the past four or five years hasn’t helped the county when it tries to fill those jobs.
“We need to be competitive,” he said. “We don’t have the financial wherewithal to pay what St. Charles County and St. Louis County do when they have budgets that are five or six times ours, but we need to be competitive.
“And other counties are making adjustments.”
He said filling positions that are open – and preventing people from leaving the county’s payroll – has been demanding.
“We’ve tried to do different approaches to recruit for jobs across the board. But some of the websites that post jobs are now refusing to post one that has less than a minimum $15 an hour pay rate. Think about that,” Courtway told the council.
Councilwoman Renee Reuter (District 2, Imperial) had noted that the Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has had trouble filling attorney positions.
Courtway said as of the Leader’s deadline, one legal position is vacant in the office, which includes 13 attorneys.
He said the county also budgeted for two additional attorneys in the county counselor’s office to reduce the caseload caused by the pandemic – with those positions paid by federal stimulus money – but so far, there have been no takers.
The market adjustment raises the lowest-level attorney’s salary from $44,616 to $52,838.
Raises were effective June 23.
Excluded from the adjustment are elected officeholders, department heads, workers covered under collective bargaining agreements plus the about 200 Sheriff’s Office employees, who are paid under a different salary schedule.
“We can only advertise jobs based on our codified salary matrix,” Courtway said. “Provisions in our merit system allow us to hire above that based on experience and education and I think I’ve been as accommodating as I can be with the elected officials and department heads when that occurs,” he said. “But that only goes so far. We need to do this.”
County Executive Dennis Gannon said the adjustment is necessary.
“Through the pandemic, I have never understood why there’s a problem recruiting people, but it’s obvious that we need to be more competitive,” he said. “I’m thankful (with sales tax revenue being better than forecast) that we are able to do some kind of adjustment.”