Ashwaubenon committee recommends shrinking wage-step matrix, adding variable pay range

The Village of Ashwaubenon Finance and Personnel Committee on Tuesday, July 15, recommended that the Village Board amend section 3.1 of the employee handbook to condense the salary and wage matrix from 15 steps to 10 and add a variable pay range above the top step, a staff presenter said.

The change is intended to improve recruitment and retention by raising the entry hiring range and giving department heads limited discretion to award additional pay increases based on performance, the presenter said.

Joel, a staff member presenting the proposal, told the committee that the draft would re-label the current step system to a lettered system so the mapping is clear: “step A corresponds to what is currently step 6, step J corresponds to what is currently step 15,” he said. He said the proposal would effectively eliminate the current steps 1 through 5 and compress the remaining scale into 10 steps.

Joel said the village is proposing the change for two primary reasons. “Recent recruitment suggests that the entry wage that we had been hiring for is less than competitive and we are not generating sufficient interest in qualified candidates to apply for our positions,” he said. To address that, the draft creates a new hiring range (steps A through E under the draft) that allows administration to advertise and hire higher within the range to attract experienced lateral candidates.

The draft also adds a variable range above the maximum step equal to 10% of the top wage for a classification. Joel said that department heads could, based on a qualifying performance review, award an additional 1%, 2% or up to 3% annually within that 10% variable band. Under the current step system each step represents a 2% lift; once an employee reached the top step (step 15) they were no longer eligible for further step increases.

Committee members asked about budget implications and how the variable increases would be funded. Joel said the village budgets for step increases using averages during the annual budget process and that the variable range introduces more uncertainty but can be managed within that budgeted average. “We do it, and we do it currently, as we budget for those step increases annually within the budget,” he said.

Committee member Tracy Flucke posed a hypothetical about how the change would affect someone currently at step 11. Flucke said if an employee at step 11 earned a step increase they would move to the corresponding lettered step (step G under the new system) rather than gaining multiple steps because of the front-end compression.

Joel provided additional clarifications: the matrix would still be reviewed annually against the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index and any CPI-based adjustment would be presented to the committee and Village Board; the example in the packet used a 2.4% annual CPI adjustment but updated June-to-June figures showed 2.7% and the final August/September presentation will use the official July-to-July figure when published. He said the effective date for the structural change, if approved by the Village Board, would be Jan. 1, 2026, and that three current employees fall in the eliminated low steps and would move immediately to the new step A.

A committee member moved to recommend that the Village Board adopt the amended section 3.1 as presented; another member seconded the motion. The committee voted in favor and the motion was accepted.

Next steps include staff presenting final comparative data with other municipalities and the final matrix to the committee and Village Board after the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes the July CPI figure, with the final matrix likely to be available for the August or September meeting and any approved structural change taking effect on Jan. 1, 2026.