During a discussion about road maintenance at Monday’s Lowndes County supervisors meeting, District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks mentioned disparities in wages between some road department employees.
This is a countywide issue regardless of department, he told The Dispatch on Thursday.
In response, Brooks put together a proposal, which he presented to county department heads this morning, to incrementally raise wages so that every county employee makes at least $15 per hour by 2023, the end of the supervisors’ current term. He said he hopes the supervisors can support and pass his plan in the near future.
“I think everyone recognizes that we have such a pay disparity that the longer we go, the worse it’s going to get,” Brooks told The Dispatch.
Roughly 70 of the county’s 346 full-time employees currently make less than $15 per hour, County Administrator Jay Fisher said. The lowest salary for a full-time county employee is currently $11.50 per hour. Under Brooks’ proposal, that person’s wages would rise to $12 per hour this year, $13.50 per hour in 2022 and $15 per hour in 2023.
The formula would be a 50-cent increase in hourly pay this year and half of the remaining difference between that and $15 each year for the next two years, Brooks said. This formula would apply to employees who have been with the county between one and four years.
Brooks also is proposing a 75-cent increase in hourly pay for employees who have been with the county less than a year, and a potential 25-cent increase for employees that already make $15 per hour.
Fisher, who is responsible for preparing the annual budget, acknowledged the county has not had “a comprehensive strategy for how people are compensated.” He took over the county administrator position Oct. 1 after Ralph Billingsley’s retirement, and he said he observed how his predecessor put together the county’s FY 2021 budget.
Revenue and expenses play a role in the county’s capacity to increase wages, Fisher said.
“The supervisors absolutely could do it tomorrow, but it would come at a cost, and that cost would be offset by cuts in other areas,” Fisher said.
Brooks had discussed his proposal with Billingsley and continued those conversations with Fisher, so the FY 2021 budget included some money set aside for potential changes in the county’s salary structure, Fisher said.
District 2 Supervisor and Board President Trip Hairston said he has seen disparities in county employees’ wages that should be corrected, but it’s “too early” for him to take a stance on Brooks’ proposal and wants to figure out how it would affect the county’s overall budget first.
“I know Leroy’s done a lot of work on that and I’m certainly willing to look at it, but at some point we’re going to have to look at it together as a group (and) ask hard questions to the administrator and the chief financial officer,” Hairston said.
District 3 Supervisor and Board Vice President John Holliman, who attended this morning’s meeting, said Monday that he would support wage increases if the county budget can sustain them. He could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Brooks said he is open to other suggestions for wage increases as long as the idea is on the supervisors’ radar.
“If the board doesn’t like my proposal, they have the option of throwing it in the trash can and coming up with something else, but there needs to be some discussion about pay,” he said.
Tess Vrbin was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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