County approves doing wage study

Taylor County is having trouble attracting quality job applicants.

While some of it is the impact of a tight job market, county human resources director Marie Koerner told members of the joint meeting of the finance and personnel committee last week that she thinks it is time to update their wage study to see if they are still competitive in the marketplace.

Taylor County works with Middleton- based Carlson Dettmann Consulting to maintain a wage program across all the county departments. Each portion in the county is evaluated by its job functions and requirements and rated on a complex grid. Koerner has the authority to offer prospective hires up to the midpoint of the wage rating for that job. She said that she is seeing applicants asking for much more than that.

She gave the example of hiring for vacant public health nursing positions and noted that the two applicants they had for the jobs asked for more money than what the longtime department director is currently making. The county last updated its compensation plan in 2014.

Patrick Glynn of Carlson Dettmann Consulting said the enhanced competition in the marketplace has been a challenge for many employers. However, he cautioned that more money is not always the solution. He said that particularly with public employment there is a sense of public service and doing something good. However, he said wages are a factor as is the county’s standard of a 35hour work week. With fewer hours, the employees make about 12.5% less at the same hourly rate as their peers working 40-hour weeks. Also impacting people’s job searches are increases in the consumer price index (CPI) which has held steady around 2% for the past 15 years but is expected to go to 5.5% this year.

Glynn said the county needs to decide where they want to be in the marketplace. For example, they could choose to be on the low side, but recognize that they would be getting people with little experience who are likely to move on after a few years. Glynn also said that any action on a minimum wage increase is unlikely to occur until after the 2022 elections because politicians want to use the issue as part of their election strategies.

Committee member Scott Mildbrand said the problem comes down to money. The county’s revenue cap is not adjusted based on CPI and that when costs go up, the county needs to make cuts in order to counteract those expenses. He noted there are counties where officials took the approach of prioritizing what was essential or mandated and cut services elsewhere to fit those priorities. “There won’t be any easy answers,” he said.

While there was extensive discussion over if the county should get the updated study at a cost of about $12,000. The issue wasn’t so much the cost of the study, but what the potential cost would be when the study showed positions to be underpaid compared to the private sector.

“The labor market doesn’t care about your inability to pay,” Glynn said. He said he would rather the county not do anything rather than have a study done and let it sit on the shelf.

Committee member Tim Hansen proposed having the wage study done in February with the results back by next June and the county able to look at implementing the results in the 2023 budget year. Committee member Ray Soper seconded that motion.

“We have to have a plan about where the money will come from,” said committee chairman Chuck Zenner about implementation of any suggestions from the study.

Soper questioned the effectiveness of tools such as sign-on bonuses to attract employees. Glynn replied that they can be an effective short-term fix to get people in the door, especially for mission critical positions. He advised against them as a longterm solution.

After lengthy discussion, Hansen’s motion failed, with those favoring moving faster on it in the majority. Through the discussion, the issue kept coming back to the potential implementation cost and what it might mean for future budgets. Others expressed concern about the impact to employees if the county did the study, but chose not to implement it to adjust wages for existing employees.

“Just because we get the survey done doesn’t mean we have to get it implemented,” Hansen said.

Committee member Rollie Thums called for the county to move forward swiftly with the study. “Can we afford as a county to sit on our hands because we are waiting a survey? To me it is like the can is being kicked down the road,” he said.

Soper countered saying the economy is in a volatile state as it recovers from the pandemic. He suggested waiting and seeing if the market stabilizes on its own in the next year.

Koerner said that even if the county were to do the study, any impacts to existing staff would be phased in over a period of years, much like with the last study.

The earliest the county could have a study done is to start now and have the results by December. Hansen said this would be after the budget for 2022 is set so there would be no room to implement anything.

Zenner said they would need to set aside funds in the 2022 budget to implement the study. Finance director Larry Brandl suggested that a mid-year adjustment could be made next July to make it an easier step to budget.

In the end, committee members voted to move forward with the study to have results in December and to split the cost of the study between 2021 and 2022 budgets.

In other business, committee members received an update on how the county’s health insurance usage rates are and what this could mean for costs as they look ahead to renewing in September.

The county’s consultant, Tim Deaton vice president of Horton, said the claims rate for this year is at 72.39% through May. If that rate holds steady, Deaton said the county will be in good shape in either renewing or going to the market. He said the usage rates for the county have stabilized from high usage in 2019 where the loss ratio was at 105.44%. Deaton also noted that the county has about 4% in possible savings from plan changes that could help ameliorate an renewal increase. Committee members directed Deaton to go out on on the market and see what was available for rates. He said that from what he is seeing, anything below a 5% increase would be favorable. Hansen called for the market survey to also include the health insurance plan that the city of Medford uses as part of a larger group of municipalities. “I want to make sure we ask them,” he said.