What is a pay raise?
Normally, I believe most people would associate a pay raise with an increase in the dollar figure with regards to a person or persons wages, as in direct wages as in a pay check. So a question might be; are benefits considered wages and should they be included in the discussion of what employees of the town earn in dollar figures? If a benefit such as health insurance is provided at the rate of 75%/25% or with the employees paying 25% of the cost of their health insurance and the Town paying 75% of the cost, should that be considered as a wage or part of the wage package? Now, if there is an increase in the cost of health insurance, should that be considered a pay raise? If there is an increase of 8.9% in the cost of insurance, is that in effect a raise? If one does some math and you use the 75/25 split, employee cost for health insurance would be an increase of 2.225% and it would be 6.675% increase for the town and if the Town would give a 2% pay increase, that would amount to an increase cost to the Town of 8.675%. Now, with an increase cost to the employees of 2.225% along with a pay raise of 2%, does that equate to a net increase in heath insurance cost of .225% for employees and 8.675% total increase for the Town? I will leave that for professionals to figure out. Another question concerning health care costs is why do Town employees seem to object so much to the Town switching from Blue Cross to GIC health insurance systems? Another thing I think may be worth looking at and publicizing is the union contract the Town has with some departments. If anyone looks at the snow & ice spending, you will see wage amounts for overtime (time and half) and double time. Are there any cities or towns near Templeton where people involved in snow & ice only earn time and half no matter the day? If that is so, can or should that be considered a benefit and therefore a portion of wages?
Jeff Bennett
The health insurance increase of 8.9% would effect different employees differently. Some employees in town receive wages that are much higher than other town employees, even in the same union, same local.
ReplyDeleteDuring the financial crisis last year at this time, the proposal made to the townspeople to layoff many workers for 6-8 weeks financially hurt many town employees BUT NOT ALL TOWN Employees. Employees at TMLWP were not impacted. Neither were the employees at the sewer department nor the employees at the school department. Some departments have been handing out wage increases to their employees, while other town employees were laid off. Look at the annual report!
Wages for MOST town employees has not kept pace with area towns. We lose many employees because of this wage disparity.
As for paying employees out of snow & ice OT and double time, that happens and is a requirement of the law. After 40 working hours and employee earns OT ; double time on holidays. The highway department does not control when it snows. When plowing operations occur during regular working hours there is no OT cost unless the plowing operation has been continuous for 48 hours.
As for the GIC, the state GIC health insurance plan is running a deficit. The GIC is undergoing some changes as well. There is no guarantee at this point on what benefit packages will look like if the GIC is adopted. Holding meetings on insurance is important, because every individual's health insurance needs are different. If the requests for proposals come in with better options for employees then it needs to be analyzed. If making changes to the current plan can meet the needs of both the holding down the town's costs AND providing employees with the plan options they want, then that needs to be analyzed as well.
Once a contract is signed, it becomes a public document. Time to start publishing these contracts!