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Emmons County staff present proposed grade-and-step pay system for employee wages
Summary
County staff presented a new grade-and-step salary matrix intended to standardize starting pay, steps, longevity increases and COLA adjustments. Commissioners discussed adopting the structure for the preliminary budget and directed staff to include figures for budget review; no final adoption was made at the meeting.
County human-resources staff and administrators presented a proposed grade-and-step pay structure that would create standardized pay grades, 2% step differentials between steps, and rules for step eligibility and longevity increases.
Presenters said the proposal separates two workweek types (40 hours for road/depot staff and 37.5 hours for most courthouse staff) and explains how annual salaries translate to hourly rates for each schedule. The committee recommended step increases for employees with 10 or more years of service (a proposed 4-step bump) and smaller step increases for employees with 2–10 years of service. New employees would be eligible for step movement in the first three years and thereafter every two years for retention.
Staff noted the proposal is a “living document” that can be adjusted when the commission grants a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA); the spreadsheet will scale grades and steps automatically. The presenters said they rounded current salaries up into the new grid for fairness and estimated the courthouse budget impact of the full proposed package (including longevity steps) as roughly $78,000 for the courthouse payroll; they said a straight 4% COLA would produce a smaller cost increase.
Commissioners discussed budget constraints, the state 3% cap on certain increases, and whether to include the proposed grading-and-step figures in the county’s preliminary budget filing. Commissioners repeatedly said they supported adopting a formal pay-grade structure but that any specific pay increases must fit the final budget. The auditor said she had not yet included the package in the preliminary budget but could insert the proposed figures for budget modeling.
No final vote to adopt the matrix or to set pay increases took place. The commission directed staff to include the proposed grade-step figures in the preliminary budget to gauge cost, and to return with budget numbers for final action during the budget cycle.
