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County employees in line for pay hike By Philip Jankowski Williamson County’s human resource director for county employees recommended a pay raise across the board all county employees to the commissioner’s court Tuesday. The recommendation came in three scenarios, each varying the amount of the raises by a small percentage, all designed to offset inflation and increasing prices of food and gas, Human Resources Director John Willingham said. The commissioners will approve one of the recommendations during a budget hearing on Aug. 19. The raises will likely cost between $3.87 million on the high end and $3.45 million on the low end. The increased salaries also apply to the county’s highest ranking officials, including elected officials, department heads and a few senior managers, though the majority of the budget increase, 72 percent, is allocated to lower-income employees, Willingham said. County Judge Dan Gattis said he supports across-the-board raises for county employees. “This is a big thing,” Gattis said. “We’re a personnel operation here.” The proposed raises presented came in three tiers. The lower two scaled back pay raises by .5 percent each step, with differences in budget impact of about $200,000. The top raise would give a 5 percent increase to salary employees, elected officials and department heads, 3.5 percent to tenured employees, generally law enforcement officials, and 3 percent to non-tenured employees, who make up the largest portion of the workforce and earn the lowest amounts of pay. The next step down lowers the raise of non-tenured to 2.5 percent and annual employees to 4.5 percent. The lowest cost scenario would lower tenured employees’ raises to 3 percent, annual employees to 4 percent and keep non-tenured worker’s raise level at 2.5 percent. Each of those possible raises marks the highest possible raise for that pay grade. Tenured and non-tenured employees are also eligible for up to 5 percent in additional merit raises. Elected officials and department heads cannot earn merit-based raises. The typical merit raise is typically 2.5 percent, and Willingham said about 80 percent of qualifying county employees earn that raise. Those raises stack on top of the required annual raise. Willingham said raises were important for lower-income workers to address a rising consumer price index and to decrease turnover rates. He said the county falls under national averages in turnover — 13.5 percent compared to the national average 16.2 percent — and that raises would continue to keep the rate under the average. “It’s our biggest concern — the driving factor,” Willingham said. “If we don’t do this there will be a lot of issues with turnover.” Turnover is typically highest with corrections employees and clerks. Clerks are especially significant because they often act as the “front lines” of communication between county government and citizens, he said. Wages and salaries comprise about 75 percent of the county’s budget, a figure that will likely not come down. “The only way to make a real change is to eliminate employees,” Pct. 1 Commissioner Lisa Birkman said.
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