Owen County approves 1.5% COLA for employees; orders wage‑study follow-up on EMS pay

Owen County Council voted to give county employees a 1.5% cost‑of‑living adjustment for the 2026 budget year and directed staff to pursue follow‑up work on the county wage study, including adding private emergency medical services data.

The raise — described during the meeting as a systemwide minimum COLA intended to give some increase to employees who otherwise would get no adjustment under the wage study — was estimated by county staff to cost about $55,000 annually. A separate proposal for a 2% COLA was discussed but not adopted; council members repeatedly raised the budgetary tradeoffs of a larger, across‑the‑board increase.

Council members and staff debated the larger structure of the county wage study: whether to hold employees at the study’s low point, which the council has largely adopted so far, or move toward midpoints or select higher pay for public‑safety roles. Staff said moving every position to the study midpoint would cost roughly $700,000 in the near term, a sum council members said the county could not absorb in a single year.

The wage‑study discussion also focused on emergency services. Staff reported paramedic pay ranges from a low of about $22.814 per hour to a midpoint of $25.349 and a high near $27.884 in the consultant’s dataset. Council members said they want the consultant to include private EMS providers in future comparisons so the county can better understand local labor market competition; the council approved a motion to have the wage study reexamine EMS classifications and include private providers.

Council members emphasized that the county’s pay policy will continue to use the consultant’s targets and that any COLA would be granted as the greater of the COLA or the move toward a wage target, so employees already above their target would not necessarily receive a COLA on top of a target increase. Direction was given to the auditor’s office and staff to recalculate budget numbers to reflect the adopted COLA and to present updated figures for the public hearing schedule.

Discussion points recorded included concerns about retention and hiring in public‑safety roles; whether the county can selectively prioritize raises for essential positions without destabilizing the overall pay structure; and requests from multiple council members for the consultant to justify data sources and comparisons. Council members also voted to hold off on recommended FLSA/exempt/nonexempt status changes until a broader personnel‑policy revision is completed.

The council’s adoption of the 1.5% COLA will be reflected in the 2026 budget materials presented at the public hearing scheduled for October 14, 2025.