Employees
to pay health coverage Council will ask for 10% contribution
By Elizabeth Prata
Gray--The Gray Town Council at its budget workshop
on Wednesday, March 9 discussed the last major components
of their proposed municipal budget, employee compensation.
Currently, of the 28 municipal employees, 26 take
advantage of the various health care plans offered
by the town, all of which are 100% paid. The Town
Council discussed having the employees who are covered
under the family plan to pay for 10% of their health
care costs after January 1st. Those employees under
the single care plan would still receive 100% coverage.
There are currently 4 employees on the single plan.
With Chair Pam Wilkinson absent, Vice-Chair Lynn Olson
led the meeting, which included Manager Mitchell A.
Berkowitz and the remaining four councilors.
The compensation discussion also included two other
components, market raises and cost of living raises.
The Employee Compensation Committee, composed of employees
and Mr. Berkowitz, had proposed that they receive
an across-the-board adjustment for market, because
many positions are below what other comparable positions
in nearby town receive for pay.
The third component discussed was cost of living adjustment
(COLA). The Compensation committee had requested a
3% COLA adjustment. Councilor Matthew Sturgis proposed
2.5%, saying that most towns give 2 or 2.5%. Also,
Mr. Sturgis proposed that the market adjustment be
reduced to 1% instead of the currently proposed tiered
system of a potential total of 2.25%. Mr. Sturgis
also said that the raises should be based on merit.
Additionally, he said that the town should be adding
a percent to the retirement match that the town currently
offers employees, from 6% to 7%.
Mr. Berkowitz disagreed, calculating that with the
current average salary of $14.55, with with the 2.5%
COLA plus 1% market raise, the average hourly wage
would be $15.06. However, Mr. Berkowitz calculated,
if employees would now need to spend an average of
$500 more per year to contribute to health care coverage,
the net raise is only 51 cents. "So it's only
a 2.2% net gain," Mr. Berkowitz said.
Ms. Olson agreed with Mr. Berkowitz, saying that she
thought 3% COLA was fair and that the employees do
a good job. She said of Mr. Sturgis's proposal regarding
the lowering of market raise and adding a percent
to the retirement contribution, "I think it is
discriminatory and it probably won't fly." She
said she was "willing to move a bit on COLA but
if you are throwing in the health care contribution,
then no."
Councilors Gary Foster and Richard Hall were silent
during the discussions.
Mr. Sturgis said that "I'm not comfortable funding
$77,000 [current package recommended by employees].
I know that there are enough people in town who work
at far below market salary and they are struggling."
As for the market raises, Mr. Sturgis said that "I
am not comfortable giving someone a raise just because
they are keeping the seat warm. I do not want to take
away from these people, we do get incredible value
with some, but I would like to review the scope of
work related to their market salary."
The Employee Compensation Committee had produced an
analysis of comparable salaries for related positions
in a dozen nearby towns. Mr. Sturgis said that that
was all well and good, but there is a difference in
amount of work expected relative to salaries that
each individuals get.
"For example, regarding assessing, when a revaluation
comes along, many towns choose to do that in-house,
but that Assessor is paid more. A reval is a ten-year
event, and Gray chose to contract out for $250,000.
But if the Assessor is paid $25,000 more per year
and does the reval in-house, it equals out. So you
can't say that the job description is only salary-driven
if you are looking at two positions that have different
scope of services."
Mr. Sturgis further noted that many of the current
staff are senior and ready to retire. The Town will
have to adjust somewhat to market salaries, he said,
when they hire new employees to fill those positions.
The Council agreed to look at scope of services when
determining market raises next year. For this year,
the Council gave the Manager latitude to determine
which positions merit a raise and are going forward
with requirng a 10% health care contribution.
