Despite adopting a salary matrix for employees at their February meeting, Pulaski County continued to work through the kinks on Monday night.
The matter was revisited after the motion made prior to adopting the salary ordinance came under question. Pulaski County spent months developing a matrix to follow that looks to provide incentives for employee longevity and better structure the pay scale for new employees.
Roger Querry, who made the original motion to adopt the matrix, says the language reflected in the minutes pretty well reflects his intent.
“I went back through it on several occasions and reiterated what my thought process was on the motion, what I felt was our attorney’s approval of that motion, the second of the motion made in the meeting, and the unanimously approval of the motion except for one abstention.”
A bit of a lengthy debate took place at the last meeting when it was recommended that the starting wages for certain employees be lowered by 10-percent. Some of the positions only require a high school degree, making the entry-level wages a bit too generous for some council members.
That 10-percent pay reduction for new employees was a matter of concern when the numbers in the salary matrix were attempted to be changed prior to being submitted to the auditor’s office prior to issuing paychecks.
Council member Linda Powers identified the confusion.
“How we did this matrix was we based it off a director’s wage,” says Powers. “And then the numbers fell off of that director’s wage by percentages.”
The Pulaski County Auditor’s office has attempted to ensure that the new pay scales are implemented as accurately as possible. Pulaski County simply lowered the percentage of pay from a department director’s salary from 78-percent to 68-percent.
The County Council agreed that the matter was settled last month, moving on from further discussion on the salary matrix.
