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DeKalb County raises minimum wage for county employees to $19 an hour
Summary
DeKalb County officials announced an immediate increase in the county minimum wage to $19 an hour, affecting 1,428 regular-status employees across 34 divisions and costing about $2.7 million annually; county leaders said the change was implemented to address affordability, recruitment and pay compression and will not trigger a tax increase.
DeKalb County announced an immediate increase in its county minimum wage to $19 an hour, county CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson said at a press conference. The county said the action affects 1,428 regular-status employees across departments and divisions and that the change was reflected in employees' May 1 paychecks.
Cochran-Johnson framed the pay change as a budgetary priority and a moral decision, citing a 2022 Ernst & Young study she commissioned that, she said, showed minimum-wage workers in metro Atlanta could need to work 140 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom apartment. "No one who works full-time in public service should be struggling to make ends meet," Cochran-Johnson said, announcing the increase effective immediately to address that gap and to improve recruitment and retention.
Interim human resources…
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