ThisWeek CW 04/03/2014
http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2014/03/31/groveport-workers-may-get-cost-of-living-increase.html
Groveport City Council is considering legislation to provide a cost-of-living adjustment for city workers, per a plan adopted by council in 2012.
The legislation introduced to council at its March 24 meeting would provide city workers with a cost-of-living adjustment of 3.55 percent across each pay grade step increase.
In the 2012 employee compensation plan, an initial cost-of-living adjustment was made only to the top step increase of each pay grade.
The current employee compensation plan calls for a review of the plan every two years with adjustments to be made based on the cost of living, if warranted and approved by council, according to Finance Director Jeff Green.
City Administrator Marsha Hall said the reason for shifting the entire pay schedule instead of just the top part of it is to keep the difference between the minimums and maximums from becoming too large and making the city uncompetitive for attracting and retaining workers at the lower end of the pay scale.
The employee compensation plan states: “The cost-of-living adjustments are designed to allow the municipality to continue to recruit and retain quality employees as it desires.”
Hall said that the city uses four different wage and cost-of-living databases to obtain the appropriate percentage of increase by using an average of the reported figures.
“The legislation to adjust the scale by 3.55 percent will follow the normal process with a second reading April 14, discussion at the April 21 Committee of the Whole meeting and a final reading April 28,” Green said.
“If the adjusted scale goes into effect, employees will not see increases until the employee performance evaluations are conducted in December, with merit-increased wages appearing on the first pay in January 2015,” he said.
City administrators have recommended that council adopt the increases, but reiterated that current salaries will not automatically increase.
The next wage survey and potential cost-of-living adjustment will be considered in 2016.