Adams County proposes 2.75% across-the-board increase; select market and pay‑equity adjustments also recommended

Adams County staff presented commissioners on Oct. 8 with an initial recommendation for fiscal year 2026 compensation: a 2.75% annual employee investment (AEI) applied to all eligible employees, plus targeted pay-equity and market adjustments.

"Adams County is committed to compensating its employees fairly and equitably within economically feasible parameters," County Manager Dion Strother said, introducing Human Resources and compensation staff who described the multi-step compensation process.

Staff described three types of analysis used in annual compensation work: - pay-equity review (internal regression analysis to identify employees whose pay falls below model-predicted levels), - individual market adjustments (benchmarked positions where county pay is 6% or more below market), and - job-family adjustments (broad adjustments by job family where the county appears below market in aggregate).

Pay-equity: staff said 14 employees were flagged in the most recent pay-equity review and will receive adjustments effective Nov. 1; those increases range from $115 to $3,953 annually and total $9,299 in annual cost. The county attorney and executive leadership reviewed and approved the adjustments.

Individual market adjustments: compensation staff said they target benchmarked positions that are more than 6% below the defined market (a 10-county peer group and select cities). Moving a benchmark produces a 6% range increase for the associated pay grade and a 6% pay increase for affected employees; staff estimated the remaining 2025 cost for this round of market adjustments at about $201,000 (pro-rated for the remainder of the year) and will incorporate full-year costs into the 2026 base budget.

Job-family adjustments: staff reported small shortfalls across the county's six job families (labor, administrative, technical, professional, management, executive). The full funding cost to make the recommended job-family adjustments would be roughly $3.5 million; given the county's budget outlook and projected property-tax constraints, staff recommended increasing range maximums for job families now (so employees can progress within their ranges later) but not funding the full job-family increases in FY2026.

Annual employee investment (AEI): staff recommended a 2.75% across-the-board AEI for all eligible employees. The recommendation reflects several constraints: union minimums for certain represented employees (the county must provide a minimum 2.75% in those contracts unless triggers are met), comparative benchmarks of neighboring jurisdictions, and county budget capacity (staff presented scenarios showing higher AEI rates combined with job-family funding could push additional multi-million-dollar costs into the base budget next year). Staff said the AEI decision balances employee support with fiscal sustainability.

Commissioners discussed the merits of merit-based vs. AEI systems and asked staff to examine performance-management practices. County leadership said it will study performance systems and bring back analysis on whether and how performance-based pay could be incorporated in a sustainable way.

Next steps: staff will include the recommended AEI and the approved pay-equity adjustments in the draft FY2026 budget presented next week and continue to refine market and job-family analyses for final budget decisions.