Washington County salary commission recommends 10% chair premium, 2% commissioner increase for 2025

The Washington County Salary Commission on June 12 agreed to recommend a 2% increase to commissioner pay for 2025 and to set the chair’s salary at 10% above the commissioner base, members said.

Commission members said the recommendation is intended to reflect the additional duties and public responsibilities of the chair while keeping the county’s pay roughly in line with comparable jurisdictions. “It is very clear that the seat has…additional compensation given the additional role and responsibility,” Chair Faisal Aziz said during the meeting.

The commission’s recommendation also incorporates a permanent countywide PERS pickup (a previously announced 6% pension pickup that increases employees’ take‑home pay), and commissioners said the commission will treat future adjustments the same way other county employees are treated — i.e., by adopting any board‑approved cost‑of‑living adjustment (COLA) in subsequent years. Commissioner Ibrahim, who favored a lower premium initially, said he would accept the 10% chair premium for the sake of consensus.

Why it matters: The commission’s recommendations will be included in its final report to the Board of County Commissioners and, if adopted by the board, will change the compensation benchmark for the county’s elected leadership. Commissioners said they aimed for a defensible, documented methodology that balances market data, the chair’s additional duties, and recent county budget pressures.

How the commission reached its numbers

Members reviewed external comparators (including Multnomah, Lane and Marion counties and the City of Portland) and agreed to exclude Clark and Thurston counties from the comparison set because those counties are outliers or not comparable in role definitions. Commissioner Masood Rashid urged including Portland because parts of Portland lie inside Washington County and because policy and service interactions create meaningful overlap.

The group examined both raw salary figures and area‑adjusted values (cost‑of‑living adjusted) and tested medians and averages from public sources (Forbes, NerdWallet, PayScale and SmartAsset) and a Multnomah County salary report. Commissioners said the area‑adjusted comparisons produced results similar enough to unadjusted figures to support a single, simple recommendation. “I actually prefer that we do area adjust,” Faisal Aziz said, noting it sets a stable precedent for future comparisons.

Ranges discussed and final recommendation

Commissioners discussed several ranges — earlier meeting notes and interviews had shown proposals from 5% to 25% for a chair premium and 10%–15% in other research. After reviewing the comparators and interviews with former and current chair/commission members, the commission coalesced around a 10% premium for the chair and a 2% baseline increase for commissioners for 2025. Wayne (commissioner) said he would accept 10% "for the sake of getting to consensus," and several other members voiced support.

On the second year (2026) the commission agreed to recommend that commissioners and the chair be treated the same as county employees with respect to any countywide COLA that may be adopted later; the commission did not set a separate fixed percentage for 2026 beyond that.

PERS pickup and payroll impact

Commission staff clarified that the county’s PERS pickup (a 6% employer pickup of employee pension contributions) was implemented in lieu of a COLA for the relevant year and is a permanent payroll change unless the board later decides otherwise. Anne (county staff) explained: “The PERS pickup is a permanent addition…then the next year, we will look at COLA for something beyond your current salary.” Commissioners said the pickup increases take‑home pay and will be reflected in paychecks.

Report method, comparators and next steps

The commission also decided to: (1) keep Lane and Marion counties and include Portland as comparators; (2) exclude Clark and Thurston counties from the comparator set; and (3) use area‑adjusted salary comparisons and, where possible, professional paid data services for future reports. Members discussed using both median and average measures to inform the recommendation, and agreed to round recommended percentages to simple values (for example 2% rather than 2.19%) for clarity.

The commission set an internal timeline to finalize the written report: members will continue drafting and reviewing sections before a planned presentation to the Board in late June. Commissioners assigned primaries and reviewers for report sections and agreed to meet again to finalize content and submit materials in time for public posting.

Quotes from the meeting are taken from the June 12 commission transcript and attributed to speakers who participated in the discussion.

Ending note

Commission members said they aimed to document the rationale and data sources clearly in the final report so future salary commissions can trace the methodology and comparator choices. Staff and commissioners will circulate the draft report and convene again before the board presentation to confirm final wording and attachments (appendices and spreadsheets).