Shawano County department heads told the Administrative Committee this week they would have little faith in any wage study done in-house.
The county is looking into consolidating job descriptions to make sure they are consistent from one department to another and at its wages to ensure they are competitive.
Supervisor Kathy Luebke and the Administrative Department are reviewing the county’s 140 job titles, which some county supervisors say are excessive for a staff of 350.
Jay Moynihan, University of Wisconsin-Extension community resource development educator for Shawano County, said no one does internal wage studies because of the politics involved. It has been suggested by some supervisors that Moynihan do the study.
“Anybody who is internal is going to have maintain relationships with other people in the workplace,” Moynihan said. “If they hurt somebody, it sours that.”
He noted that the University of Wisconsin trains people to do wage studies, but hired an Illinois firm to do a wage study for the university system.
Steve Dreher, maintenance director, said county employees would be more likely to trust a study by an impartial third-party than any internal study.
“The only wage study some people want to hear is county members, be they management or hourly, are overworked and underpaid,” Dreher said. “We’ve had them ad nauseum, and every time they recommend something … it gets tossed out the window.”
The sticking point for hiring a consultant is the money. The County Board approved spending up to $50,000 earlier this year for the wage study, but bids came in above that ceiling.
Supervisor Gene Hoppe, Administrative Committee chairman, said even $50,000 is too much for a wage study. In June, he expressed faith that county employees were just as capable as any firm of doing the job.
Rosemary Rueckert, county clerk, suggested partnering with other counties for the study. She said Green Lake and four other counties recently hired a consultant to do a $50,000 study, costing each county $10,000.
“The good part about it is the board passed it and it was a comparison of the surrounding counties,” Rueckert said. “Having Shawano and Oconto and Brown would make more sense.”
Department heads agreed that a wage study was needed, and the sooner the better.
Social Services Director Rick Kane told the committee that the county government has become a training ground for social workers and other employees. The county is spending time and money to train employees that leave soon after and get similar jobs with higher pay in other counties.
“We’re not competitive with our salaries,” Kane said. “We’re losing people, and it’s costing us big time.”
Sarah Bartz, economic support supervisor in the Social Services Department, said she has worked in other nearby counties and believes Shawano is the lowest in county employee pay in many departments. She pointed out that her employees start at $12 per hour, while starting pay for the same jobs in Door County is $19 per hour, followed by Oconto and Marinette counties at $17 per hour and Brown at $16 per hour.
“We are doing the exact same work as those other counties,” Bartz said. “What precludes my staff from going to another county?”
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