Many county workers underpaid for years

CELINA - Many Mercer County government employees will see considerable pay raises after the first major overhaul of the county compensation plan since 1997.

Looking to assess market realities and stay competitive, county commissioners had law firm Fishel, Downey, Albrecht, Riepenhoff, LLP administer an analysis of more than 100 positions in the county. The review included a wage survey conducted for several positions with comparable Ohio counties.

Consequently, commissioners last month approved a new compensation plan that took effect last month.

"We found that there were some employees that, after analysis, were underpaid," said commissioner Greg Homan. "It gave us a mechanism to address some employees that were underpaid and that's being phased out over a multiyear cycle with it being front-loaded."

As many as a quarter of the county's employees were underpaid, Homan said.

Many will see substantial pay increases stemming from the restructured point range/pay scale. In addition, all county employees will be granted a 5% increase in wages in 2022 due to market conditions and demand for employees, Homan said.

The front-loaded compensation adjustment and 5% wage raise are "pretty significant" in terms of increases, said attorney Marc A. Fishel while recently going over the plan with elected county officials and department heads.

"Really, they've (commissioners) taken a pretty progressive approach to this to try to address the realities," Fishel said. "I can tell you many situations where I'm involved in these things and there's pressure to say, 'No, no, that's too high. We can't make it that high.' None of that happened here."

All position descriptions were reviewed and job duties analyzed in conjunction with a point-factor analysis to rank positions within the new pay grades, the compensation plan states. The number of pay ranges was reduced from 37 to 12, "a more manageable number reflecting best practices," the plan reads.

"The pay ranges were adopted after considering numerous factors, including eliminating several lower pay ranges from the prior plan, market adjustments, pay for similar positions in other counties, application of the point-factor system and review of the current pay for county positions," according to language in the plan.

The new scale continues the county's practice of establishing a minimum and maximum rate and allows the appointing authority discretion on where employees are placed within the pay range based on various factors.

Across the state, traditional lower rated positions had been inadvertently ignored regarding compensation over the last 10 or 20 years, Fishel said. Historically there has been an assumption that people in what is commonly referred to as blue-collar jobs are more interchangeable, which was in fact not true, especially today, he said.

Commissioners have modernized their compensation plan, one that reflects market realities and the needs and expectations of the current workplace, Fishel had told officials. The plan also reduces the number of point factors from 16 to 7. The updated factors are education or experience; physical effort; decision making; safety, hazards and work environment; supervision; contact with the public; and levels of work projects.

However, Fishel noted there are not and have not been pay steps or automatic increases.

One county department head had noted at the county session with Fishel some of his employees are under the impression that if they have a 30-year career with the county, their compensation should increase 1/30 each year. Some of those employees now have more than 30 years with the county and are not yet topped out on the pay scale and want to know the reason why.

Experience alone is not a reason why an employee should move up on the pay scale, Fishel said. He noted he had no answers for breaking those employee expectations.

"I can say, and again I know this isn't across the board, but at least in 2021 and going into 2022, it seems like there are a fair number of employees who are going to get some pretty good raises, much bigger than they've seen maybe their entire career, frankly, except upon promotion and things like that," Fishel said.

Under the point range/pay scale now in effect, hourly employees can earn from $12.50 to $51.70 an hour. That increases on Jan. 1, 2022, from $13.13 to $54.29 an hour. Salaried employees can earn from $26,000 to $107,536. That increases on Jan. 1, 2022, from $27,310.40 to $112,923.20.

Fishel noted that his law firm's analysis and wage study did not cover fringe benefits, such as health insurance, vacation, holiday pay and others.

"One of the things we're seeing more, the private sector is touting $15 an hour minimum and you have health insurance benefits available and I guarantee you those health insurance benefits don't touch what you're giving," he said.

County employees, for the most part, pay much less for their insurance than they would pay in the private sector, Fishel said.

For the sixth consecutive year, county commissioners in 2022 are offering a high-deductible health plan that includes medical, dental, prescription, life insurance and a health savings accounts for employees.

The county is self insured as a member of the Midwest Employee Benefit Consortium that also includes Auglaize and Hancock counties. Employer premiums are set by the consortium based on claim history and projected industry trends.

Including the county's minimum HSA contributions and online service fees, a single plan will cost $8,573.40 - up from $8,268.36 in 2021 - and a family policy will cost $24,181.34 - up from $23,369.26 in 2021, according to a resolution approved by commissioners last month.

The employee-paid portion of the health plan premium will remain at 10% for single coverage and 12.5% for family coverage. Single coverage will cost $33.74 per two-week pay period - up from $32.57 in 2021 - and family coverage will cost $118.66 per two-week pay period - up from $114.76 in 2021. Next year will include 26 pay periods.

Employees can elect for a fully insured vision plan. If selected, the employee must pay 50% of the plan, contributing $1.22 per pay period for single coverage and $3.11 for family coverage - the same rate as this year's.

To again help out with the high-deductible plan, commissioners are allowing employees to set up HSAs.

HSA dollars can go toward co-pays, deductibles, coinsurance, eligible expenses that can't be reimbursed under another health plan, over-the-counter medicines, prescription drugs and dental and vision services.

HSA contributions are removed pretax and earned interest is tax free. Also, withdrawals are tax free if used for qualified medical expenses. Unspent HSA dollars carry over to the next year.

Commissioners agreed to contribute $200 for single and $500 for family HSAs, matching this year's amount.

Moreover, employees can earn an additional $600 for their HSA for single plans and $700 for family plans by participating in wellness programs, the same amounts as this year's.