How Wages are Set in Benton County
Market Rates vs. Annual Pay Increases: Why are there two different ways to set wages in Benton County?
How Wages Are Set
Benton County managers and unrepresented (non-union) employees are paid market rates for the work they do. Periodically, many employers engage expert consultants who conduct compensation studies to determine if the employer is compensating employees fairly and at a level that will attract and retain skilled workers. County jobs are categorized into groups (classifications) and jobs that are representative of the group are used to find market matches in the compensation study. The results are used to adjust pay ranges and each person’s pay is adjusted accordingly: some receive large increases, some small increases, and some get no pay increase because their salary is already at or above the market rate.
Every time the AFSCME contract is renegotiated (most recently in 2017 and 2021), Union representatives choose how their members’ wages will be adjusted. In 2017 the Union declined a pay study funded by the County to determine market rates for each position, instead choosing to continue with a contract that gives every represented employee the same percentage increase every year. This approach was adopted again in 2021, and is being used in negotiating the current contract. By their own choice, AFSCME positions are not being compared with market rates, so it is very likely that some employees are being paid more than other employers would pay for that position, while others are being paid less.
There are pros and cons to giving a flat percentage increase to every represented employee. There is a sense of fairness in every employee getting the same thing. It insures wage growth every year for every employee. At the same time, individual wages are not kept in step with market rates, and those discrepancies can grow over time.
The Current Sticking Point
In contract negotiations and statements to the press and the public, AFSCME representatives have repeatedly requested big pay increases for all members like the ones managers got at the beginning of 2024*. There are problems with this request.
First, each manager/unrepresented employee received a different percentage increase. No flat percentage was applied to everyone. Only 50 of the 110+ employees in this category received pay increases, which means more than half of them received no increase. Some of the 50 received annual increases of a few hundred to a few thousand dollars – less than or equal to the annual pay increases the County is offering in the current contract negotiations.
What continues to be widely discussed are the relatively small number of those 50 managers who received large increases in the tens of thousands of dollars. Again, each one received a different percentage increase, with a few getting a 20%+ raise.
The primary factor that contributed to these larger increases was the application of Oregon pay equity laws as required by ORS 652.220. The law requires that an individual’s compensation be equal to others’ with commensurate experience and education, regardless of their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, marital status, veteran status, disability, or age. Many of these larger increases were for individuals that had over 20 years of education and experience that required them to be on the higher end of the new pay scale.
The second problem with just “giving big raises like the managers got” is that any increase would have to be arbitrarily assigned because no pay study has been conducted for the purpose of adjusting wages. Pay increases for management and unrepresented employees were determined in a very systematic way that took more than a year. The County believes all employees should be compensated fairly, but it would be irresponsible to base that fairness on an arbitrary increase that isn’t supported with a market study that would substantiate the increase given.
A Possible Solution
AFSCME members want to be treated the same as management and unrepresented employees when it comes to pay increases. They can be if they go through the same process to determine what is an appropriate increase. The County’s most recent proposal would offer the union that same opportunity to evaluate their wages, and, if warranted, make pay equity adjustments.
*The salary tables for management and unrepresented employees had not been adjusted in several years, so in 2023 the County hired an independent consultant to conduct a pay study of ALL employees. The project was completed in November 2023. Effective January 1, 2024, all unrepresented employees were assigned to the step of the new salary tables that was closest to their current salary. In some cases, this resulted in a slight pay increase.
The results of the pay study were also used to correct wages for 150 employees who were being paid less than market rates. Fifty of these employees were managers/unrepresented; 100 of them were union employees (86 of them in AFSCME). Two managers also had their classification corrected to reflect recommendations made by the compensation consultant.