The Oconto County Board on Thursday adopted a compensation plan for its 250 employees that simplifies the system that evolved over several decades of collective bargaining.
With the passage of Act 10 in 2011, the bargaining rights of public sector unions were restricted, with the exception of protective service employees. Previously, the county bargained with separate employee unions and ended up with different outcomes.
The plan adopted by the County Board last week will be implemented in January 2014.
“What this will do is put everybody on one pay plan,” said Charlie Carlson, of the Madison-based Carlson-Dettmann Consulting.
Six months ago, the county hired the consulting firm for $55,000 to conduct a classification/compensation study, and Carlson presented the findings to supervisors on Thursday. In preparing a new pay plan, the firm accepted input from county employees, department heads and county supervisors. It also reviewed job responsibilities and conducted a market evaluation of private- and public-sector jobs.
“In compensation, you want to have some sort of measuring tool in order to compare different jobs in some sort of uniform manner,” Carlson said. “The purpose of doing that is to establish what we call internal equity and fairness, and to employees that means a lot.”
The consultants surveyed 10 surrounding counties and the cities of Oconto and Oconto Falls to help determine compensation for county employees. The result was a restructured compensation system with 20 pay grades, with 11 steps in each grade.
By adopting the pay scale, the county moved toward a performance management system that requires annual reviews. No step increases will be granted unless employee performance at least meets expectations on the annual review.
“This will be a very big step forward for Oconto County,” Carlson said, noting that some employees have not had reviews since the end of their probation period, which may have occurred 30 years ago.
Under the new plan, individuals hired at the minimum of the pay scale will be eligible for a pay step increase after five years. After that, steps come in two-year intervals.
Current employees paid below the minimum of the range will be raised to the minimum. Employees who fall between two ranges will move ahead on the pay scale. No employees will have their wages cut. Those whom the study determined were overcompensated will have their pay frozen until the pay plan catches up. According to the study, only a couple of employees were earning more than the maximum of the pay range.
“Frankly, we were glad to see that. What it means is you’ve been managing your pay plan as far as overall costs pretty responsibly,” Carlson said.
Administrative Coordinator Kevin Hamann was supportive of the Carlson-Dettmann plan.
“The system is not perfect by any means. There’s no perfect system, but it’s much better than what we currently have,” he said.
The smallest compensation increase is 0.1 percent for an individual working in maintenance, who will earn $39 more in 2014, resulting in an annual wage of $30,693. The largest increase, of 7.9 percent, was proposed for two employees who will be compensated $39,683 in 2014, an increase of $3,140 over 2013.
“Every employee had a chance to look at this, so they know exactly where they are,” Hamann said. “There are some employees who do not agree with this. We have an appeal process set up as part of this adoption.”
Employees can appeal twice. They appeal first to Carlson Dettmann, then the county’s Personnel Committee. Any changes to the pay plan require committee and County Board approval. Hamann said about 10 percent of the employees are likely to appeal.
“If it’s only 10 percent, I’m pretty happy with that. I’d say with the current system, you’d probably have half of them,” he said.
Supervisor Greg Sekela, who cast the only no vote, said the plan may not be fair and equitable if 10 percent of employees want to appeal. He reviewed a listing of employee wages and found several he didn’t agree with, saying common sense would dictate the employee be paid at a different rate in comparison to others.
“I’m concerned about the cost,” he added.
County officials set aside $250,000 in the 2014 budget to cover the wage increases resulting from the study. Employee compensation is projected to increase 32 percent in 2014 for a total of about $235,000 — an additional $178,000 for wages and $57,000 for fringe benefits.
As employees move ahead on the pay scale over the next several years, the county projects it will spend less than $150,000 to cover the raises called for in the study.
In future years, the county will experience significant turnover because more than half of the staff is 50 or older. The turnover will allow the county to replace higher-earning, senior employees with new hires who are less expensive, Carlson said.
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