Shawnee County plans $5 million-plus in pay increases to try to keep up with competition for workers

Shawnee County gave its employees wage hikes totaling about $5 million after a study it had conducted in 2015 said they were generally underpaid.

A similar but less comprehensive study conducted last year on the county's behalf showed that once again, its employees on average were making less than the competitive market level.

Commissioners Aaron Mays, Bill Riphahn and Kevin Cook consequently voted Dec. 30 to adopt the recommendations of that study, which calls for additional wage increases in the amount of $5,020,930.59.

The county remains in the early stages of implementing those recommendations, which were sought in an effort to ensure the wages the county pays are competitive with those offered by similar employers.

Commissioners since Dec. 30 have started down the road toward making those pay raises a reality.

They approved a contract Jan. 10 providing across-the-board pay raises recommended in that study totaling 15% over three years to Shawnee County sheriff's deputies represented in collective bargaining by the Fraternal Order of Police.

The 99 employees involved are to receive those increases in the amounts of 7% on July 1, 2022; 3% on July 1, 2023; and 5% on July 1, 2024. The agreement also provides step increases in amounts based on an employee's seniority and place on the pay scale.

Study brought about better applicants

The Dec. 30 vote came at a time when many employers are having trouble finding good workers.

Shawnee County's ongoing efforts to keep up with the competition have been going on since 2015, when the county paid $63,400 to have an employee compensation study carried out by CBIZ Human Capital Services, a national firm with an office in Topeka.

CBIZ compared compensation for Shawnee County employees with that provided by governments of the city of Topeka; the Kansas counties of Johnson, Sedgwick and Wyandotte; the Missouri counties of Boone, Clay and Jefferson; and the Iowa counties of Black Hawk, Johnson, Scott and Linn.

The study looked at what Shawnee County needed to do to compensate employees at the median of the competitive labor market, with the median being the point at which half the competitors pay less and half pay more.

CBIZ concluded that, on average, base pay in Shawnee County was 11.3% to 14.9% below the competitive market level.

It took the county three years to implement all the raises adopted in response to the 2015 study, county counselor Jim Crowl told The Capital-Journal last February.

Still, he said, county department heads found themselves hiring more qualified applicants after the county adjusted wages based on the results of that study.

"In our experience, it went a long way to stabilizing our employment in many departments and reducing turnover,” Crowl said.

Previously: A 2015 wage study recommended about $5M in raises. Will the 2021 wage study be as bad?

County is 6.7% below market level

Commissioners voted last February to pay $43,400 to have a wage study conducted by Tallahassee, Fla.-based Evergreen Solutions, LLC.

Mark Holcombe, senior consultant for the company, described that study's findings while appearing by Zoom at the commission's Dec. 30 meeting.

Holcombe said Evergreen compared compensation for Shawnee County employees with that for workers with similar positions employed by the state of Kansas, the cities in Kansas of Topeka and Lawrence, the counties in Kansas of Douglas, Johnson, Riley, Sedgwick and Wyandotte, the counties in Missouri of Boone and Jefferson, the counties in Nebraska of Lancaster and Sarpy and the counties in Iowa of Scott and Black Hawk.

More: Shawnee County takes step toward potentially reducing its number of ambulance calls

Evergreen concluded that, on average, with cost of living being taken into account, base pay in Shawnee County was 6.7% below the competitive market level.

Lower-paid employees in Shawnee County tended to be more underpaid compared to the existing market than higher-paid employees were, Holcombe told commissioners.

He recommended Shawnee County take steps that include increasing employee compensation and revising the pay grades it maintains.

Commissioners agreed Dec. 30 to implement most of the recommendations involved next July, though they called for some pay raises put in place this month.

Those include increases for jobs seeing critical staffing shortages, including for lower-level road and bridge workers in the public works department, corrections specialists in the corrections department, drivers and collectors in the solid waste department and dispatchers and call takers in the Shawnee County Emergency Communications Center.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Shawnee County on road to granting $5 million-plus in wage hikes