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| This graph, provided by ECSO, shows Entry Deputy Annual Salary has increased 53% and that some sort of salary augmentation has been given to employees in all but 4 of the last 18 years. |
Attachment 13 of the binder containing the documents associated with the ECSO's appeal of their 2017-2018 budget is entitled "Time Line of ECSO Raises." There is a lot of interesting data that can be gleaned from just this one tab. As I go through the binder this weekend ahead of Monday morning's strategy meeting of the BCC, I find myself coming back to attachment 13. What does it show? There is dissonance between what has been stated and what this document shows.....
----For the period from 2000-2018, Base Pay for deputies has increased roughly 53% from the year 2000 starting pay level
----This equates to an average annual base pay increase of nearly 3% per year to the starting pay for "Entry Deputy"in this time frame
----Some form of pay raise or salary increase has been given to ECSO personnel in all but four (4) of the last 18 years--according to this chart provided by ECSO.
----Although ECSO personnel have stated to me that deputies have gone "7 years without raises" --the graph provided by ECSO does not corroborate that statement..It clearly disputes this assertion. What seven years?
The problem with "COLA" increases, is they go to every employee - including future employees - as it increases the starting salary. The Merit increases are what was known as "step raises" allows employees to progress within their pay range. Therefore, if the raises are "merit" and not cola, those employees with an agency longer than one year will see a increase, putting small fraction of salary between themselves and the new guy. When only "COLA" raises are issued, since everyone received it - including the new hire - they all make the same money and now a person with one year makes the same money as the guy with no experience. Go 2, 3, 4, years of no merit increases, and now the 5-year employee makes the same as a new hire. Spread that out over a career, and a long-term employee may not be making much more money than the guy just hired with no experience. Ultimately, come retirement time, those lack of pay increases also lessen the retirement pay. There is no way to make up the "lost money" in retirement pay.
ReplyDeleteWith this in mind, there are 9 years were only COLA raises were given which resulted in a "compression" of salary between long-term employees and a new hire. Are you positive that the raises from 2014 until 2018 are all "Merit" increases? Meaning they were only given to current employees and did not adjust the base salary for the new hire? If not, then there are 4 more years of salary compression where senior employees still make the same money as a new hire.
The one benefit that is not included in the above noted graph, is that "sworn personnel" have a union contract which mandates a promotion in rank and a 5% increase in pay after completing - dont hold me to it but I believe its 6, 12, 18 years of service and the completion of a number of required educational hours per promotion. That was one way to off-set some of the "salary compression" between experienced and new hire employees.
As a Escambia County retiree, I suffered throughout my career with "salary compression". Often only receiving a pay increase due to promotions. Had I received the raises as outlined during my new hire orientation, my salary would have easily been $20k higher at retirement and an additional $1,500 per month in retirement pay after my 26 years of service.
Anonymous--thanks in advance for your service to our county. I am using this graph because it was provided by the ECSO. Yet--I was told by the sheriff that his men went 7 years without a pay raise and this chart clearly contradicts that statement. I understand the compression issue, however as you state that apparently was addressed through the ECSO's CBA which has career timelines/benchmarks that add additional salary to the base salary at certain points in a deputy's career which would seem to prevent true "salary compression" from occurring; after 1 year of service it is a 10% salary increase. then another 5% at the 7 year mark, and another 5% at the 12 year mark, and another 5% at the 17 year mark. So far as I understand it from reading the CBA, a deputy working for a career will, if the educational and other requirements are met, receive an additional 25% in salary increases within 17 years on the job--in addition to an up to 10% education incentive increase, assignment pay, shift-differential pay, in addition to receiving a cruiser to drive to and from work. So with this structure in place compression couldn't occur, because of these bench-marked increases over the career span. In addition to this, overtime is available (and common) as is additional side work at $27 dollars per hour in addition to the base pay and other allowances. But back to the issue of raises: Looks to me like it was 4 years without raises, not 7. What say you?
ReplyDeleteSo what if the guys have been there longer make about the same as newbies. Isn't there a parable in the Bible about that one?Yeah Bergosh, call out the lies...everywhere. Even on the BOCC. Tough job but some body's got to do it.
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