Hays County employees to see raise

HAYS COUNTY — With economic inflation and a sharp rise in the cost of living, employees of all kinds are feeling financial effects — and a salary increase is a nice relief.

In a 4-1 vote last week, the Hays County Commissioners Court approved a 10% increase for county employees within pay grades 106-113 (making under $50,000 annually).

Before this vote, the court discussed and voted on the initial agenda item of implementing a 10% pay increase for all Hays County employees whose salary is under $100,000, excluding those bound by the Collective Bargaining Agreement, effective Feb. 1. Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra brought the item forward, which stated that this increase was being called “due to the delay of the salary survey that would have brought the county employees to a market wage.”

“We have already been told by credentialed, commissioned professionals that we are sitting at a minimum, as far as they’re concerned, of 11.08% below the average in pay,” Becerra said. “I know it’s not on purpose, but we keep delaying, we keep delaying, we keep delaying. We do have a lot of new elected officials. We do have department heads struggling in different components and capacities … I believe the intent and spirit behind this agenda item was to buy more time for those, as Dr. Cohen [Pct. 2 commissioner Michelle Cohen] has illustrated at the podium, ‘Hanging on by the tip of their fingers,’ paycheck to paycheck and living in all the variables that we’ve already heard are not favorable to our coworkers … I feel that us going to a 10% is just the , ‘Please bonify, hold on, we’re working on it, but we need a little more time’ effort gesture, and that’s the intent.”

Hays County Budget Officer Vickie Dorsett explained that $2.6 million has been budgeted for the salary study. A 10% increase “across the board” for approximately 750 employees (excluding elected officials and Collective Bargaining Act employees) would cost about $4.5 million annually. If the court had implemented this measure by Feb. 1, it would have cost just under $3 million.

According to Dorsett, of the 750 or so employees in the plan, 520 make under $50,000 annually.

Pct. 4 commissioner Walt Smith, however, echoed similar sentiments to Pct. 3 commissioner Lon Shell about giving “credibility” to individual department heads to help make financial decisions instead of doing a blanket 10% increase.

“We have so many different job descriptions and individual salary stages in a lot of these offices that my concern is as we look at these positions, especially that we have done salary exceptions for over the last couple of years, we have people at the top of ranges that with a 10% increase, we’re going to blow them out of the prescribed range for some of those jobs,” Smith said.

“If we did a 10% increase [for new hires] they’re going to more or less blow out of the water any employee that we’ve had at that same job in that same office for quite some time,” he added.

Becerra agreed with Smith’s points on ensuring discretion with elected officials and department heads in order to avoid overriding them and giving an “avalanche deal,” but still made a motion to approve the agenda item as written with the 10% increase. The motion failed 4-2 with only Becerra and Cohen voting in favor, prompting Dorsett to “run some numbers” on the budgetary impact of approving this item for pay grades 110-115, which make less than $50,000 annually.

According to the county, pay grades are established as a hierarchical grouping of jobs with similar value. Within each pay grade is a pay range structure set with a minimum, midpoint and maximum rate of pay; the midpoint is the average market value of the job. Jobs and salaries within these grades can fluctuate, depending on the fiscal year.

Following the initial failed motion, Dorsett returned and explained that the calculated impact for pay grades 110 to 115, which encompass old grades 106 to 113, is roughly $2.5 million annually and just under $1.7 million to implement on Feb. 1.

According to Dorsett, the current minimum annual salary for grade 113 is $48,900, grade 114 is $52,947 and grade 115 is $58,242. Becerra still pushed for the motion to encapsulate grades 115 and below, but Dorsett said doing so would “use a big chunk of your funding.”

Pct. 1 commissioner Debbie Ingalsbe ultimately motioned to approve a 10% increase for pay grades 106 to 113. Becerra seconded the motion and voted yes, saying, “it’s better than nothing.” Smith voted yes “at the detriment of some of our employees.” Cohen also voted yes.

Shell was the sole dissenting vote. Earlier in the meeting, he stated his desire for departments and elected officials to meet first in order to bring recommendations to the Feb. 14 court meeting of how best to spend what the county has budgeted, along with its current savings, for Fiscal Year 2023.

“I understand the situation and I’m not disagreeing, I just think it’d be nice to hear from everybody on what they see as the best way to address the problems that they’re facing with their employees and the associated pay,” Shell said.