City employees may get starting wage increases

Francis Scarcella, The Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa.
·2 min read

Oct. 26—SUNBURY — City employees could see a minimum wage increase after Mayor Kurt Karlovich and Sunbury Council members met Monday in a budget session at City Hall.

Karlovich originally wanted the city to increase all employees being hired to $15 per hour. Council members agreed Monday night to have Treasurer Kevin Troup run the numbers to see where the city will stand down the road if the raises go through. They are proposing a starting wage of $14.50 an hour for full-time employees and $13.50 an hour for part-time employees.

"We need to keep our employees and we need to be able to offer new employees a livable wage," Karlovich said.

Councilman Josh Brosious agreed and said he wanted Troup to run the numbers to make sure the city could sustain the increase in the future.

"We need to look closely at this and see how the decisions we make today will affect us five to ten years down the road," Brosious said. "We can't make an emotional decision, but a decision based on long-term data results. I will not vote for anything that will jeopardize the financial stability of the city."

Currently, city employees' wages range from $10.96 to $18.61 per hour with service ranging from one to 28 years of nonsupervisory position employment, Karlovich said.

Councilman Chris Reis agreed the city needs to make the changes and he also wanted Troup to project the numbers with the new starting salaries, and the 3-percent increase city employees will get in 2022.

"This is something that has to be done," he said. "We all knew this was something that was coming and we need to make sure we get good employees by offering a livable salary."

The current proposed budget is $3.58 million, with no tax increase, according to Troup. With the new starting salaries, $39,943 would be added to the budget.

That number also includes FICA, Medicare, and unemployment increases, Karlovich said. Karlovich said he worked with Sunbury Police Chief Brad Hare and was able to cut $16,000 out of the police budget in order to help pay part of the cost toward the increase.

Troup said he will review the numbers and report to council. If the new starting pay is approved, it must be part of the budget, which needs to be approved before Dec. 31.

After the budget meeting, Karlovich said he is happy council is willing to look at the numbers and he hopes the final approval will take place.