COUNTY WAGES EDGE UP; EQUALITY GOAL OF NEW PLAN

JACKSON -- A new pay classification plan took effect with the new year Tuesday for about 120 Cape Girardeau County employees. For some, the plan will result in pay raises of up to about 25 percent phased in over the next two years; for others it will be 5 percent or somewhere in between.

The ultimate goal of the plan, which was approved as part of the county commission's 1991 budget process, is to provide an equitable compensation and benefits program for county employees, explained County Clerk Rodney Miller.

"The basic concept of the pay system is that job responsibility and job performance will be the key determinants of an employee's salary," said Miller.

"We want to try to reward some seniority and what that job entails and what its responsibilities are. And, we want to try and bring pay up to be more competitive to the private sector and other public sector jobs."

Miller has been working with James Lansmon, a local consultant hired to assist in the project, for over a year in developing the plan.

Presiding Commissioner Gene Huckstep said the commission initiated the study because of its desire to establish guidelines to insure employees are treated fairly and are paid according to their responsibilities.

In the long run, Huckstep said, "we believe the plan will assist us in maintaining the high standards of service to our fellow citizens."

In developing the pay plan, Miller pointed out that a description was written for each job and 10 different salary grades were established. Another important part of the process, he said, is "we tried to do it on the basis of jobs, not people. What we did had nothing to do with the people in the jobs now, but what the actual responsibility of that job was."

The plan has no provisions for merit pay, Miller said, but there is some allowance for pay increases in the plan. Pay increases can also be obtained through promotion.

Each pay grade has an increased salary for each year of experience and the county commission may decide to increase the amounts in the future with cost-of-living adjustments. Each year of additional service will bring about a 3.5 percent increase in pay.

For the first year of the plan, employees were given 35 percent of their seniority or a 5 percent pay increase, whichever is greater.

Most of the larger pay increases went to employees who have been working for the county for a number of years. One exception was the sheriff's department, where some received larger increases not only because of their seniority but because of the responsibility associated with their job.

"I think the people who have been here for a while were treated well for the most part," Miller said.

Although discussion of the pay plan has caused some apprehension among employees, Miller said that in general everyone seems to be "fairly comfortable" with what was worked out. He said that some of the employees at the lower end of the job grades were not completely happy.

The clerk said that the first year of the plan will cost about $140,000 to implement and the second year an additional $40,000. Over the two year period, the increase in the county's current $1.8 million payroll will be about 9.8 percent.

Miller said that increase would be close to the total payroll had the normal across-the-board pay adjustments been applied as in the past.

Objectives of the compensation program are to:

Clearly define the duties and responsibilities of each position through written job descriptions; have employees perceive that their pay and benefits are fair with respect to other jobs in the county and with competitive jobs outside the county; to comply with federal, state, and local regulations; to establish a system that is fiscally sound and cost effective; to provide a program understood by all employees; to provide a pay system easily administered and maintained; and to establish a salary schedule for each job that is based on value to the county as it relates to the competitive job market.

Miller said many of the larger counties in the state have various kinds of job classification programs, which is a step toward improving professionalism in county government.

Cape County's pay plan does not affect elected officials, whose salary guidelines are set by the State Legislature. It also does not include circuit court personnel, who are state employees.

The plan also outlines hiring procedures, probationary procedures for new employees, promotion policies, and guidelines for adjusting the pay scale.