Iron County Board discusses wage increase

By ZACHARY MARANO

zmarano@yourdailyglobe.com

Hurley — At their monthly meeting on Tuesday, the Iron County Board of Supervisors agreed to request additional information before acting on the finance committee’s recommendation to increase the employee wages at a starting point of 4.5%.

Board chair Joseph Pinardi said that he discussed the matter with Iron County Clerk Michael Saari prior to the meeting. They concluded that a 4.5% wage increase for all county employees would widen the gap between the highest- and lowest-paid employees.

Instead, Pinardi suggested that they increase employees’ hourly rates by $1.25 across the board. This would benefit employees who are paid $25 an hour more, as Pinardi noted that a 4.5% wage increase would represent an $1.12 increase in their hourly rate.

“The people on the bottom are going to get the smallest raise and they probably need it more than our administrators, who are on the top at a lot higher pay. If everybody got $2,300-$2,500, everybody would get treated the same and it would really help the ones on the bottom more than the ones on the top,” Saari said.

Board member Larry Youngs requested that the department heads bring a list of their employees to the finance committee, including the employees’ names, their years of service, their salary or hourly rate and how much vacation time they have. Youngs said that this information will help himself and some other board members make a more informed decision.

One of the primary reasons the finance committee approved a recommendation for a county employee wage increase at their last meeting was to address the U.S. inflation rate, which has risen to more than 9%. Another reason was to bring Iron County’s wages more in line with other municipalities to make it easier for them to attract and retain workers.

The board also authorized Human Services Director Cally Bucknell to express interest to the Wisconsin County Association in a new option involving securitization for receiving money in damages from pharmaceutical companies following the recent opioid settlement. Bucknell said that there are several different options for collecting these monies and by expressing interest, the county is not committed to this option.

At the human services board meeting on Monday, the board authorized the creation of a secondary aide position. However, Bucknell told the board of supervisors that she would rather focus on improving worker retention than hire a new employee at their meeting on Tuesday. Bucknell said that retaining social workers is more important in part because training replacements is a significant investment in time and money.

Bucknell said that lowering the frequency of social workers’ on-call rotations would help with retention. She said that workers answer calls anywhere between once every two weeks and once every four weeks for that entire week. She said that although increased pay is associated with these duties, many workers think that the pay is not worth the impact on their personal lives.

Bucknell did not request that the board of supervisors approve anything at Tuesday’s meeting, saying she plans to propose new positions in the next budget cycle and discuss employee retention strategies with the other department heads.

The county board also agreed to sell a vacant lot at Whitecap Alpine for $15,000. Saari said that the buyer previously purchased an adjacent lot and put a home on it.