STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAU) -- Some Stevens Point’s city employees appealed the findings of the recent pay study. At a special city council meeting Monday, ten of the appeals were considered, but only four of the employees successfully had their pay grades moved up.
Mayor Andrew Halverson says overall, the plan authored by the Carlson Dettman consulting firm is doing much of what it was supposed to do. “The good part now is we have a very appropriate pay plan via the grades, that are ascending in terms of responsibility, and that’s what we’ve always really been striving for. Now, we can move on to fixing the steps which are very inaccurate.”
Halverson says the steps are not even close to being accurate because certain comparable city public and private sector figures were left out of the study.
The Mayor says it’s important to understand the grades and steps within that grade in order to get the employee pay set fairly. “Grade is how difficult the position is, how much responsibility rests with the position, that’s how you get graded, which produces a range of steps. Then you will naturally progress through those steps, which is what gets you your pay.”
The council heard ten appeals Monday night, and only granted four of them. Halverson says it’s important to understand the grades are based on the job responsibilities and not on the employees performance. “It’s very difficult for me to look out at some of our best employees and not support them in this request, but this request is not necessarily directly tied to the way in which they do their job. These are very good friends of mine. These are people that I’ve known for a long, long time, several of them before I even became Mayor, and that’s uncomfortable but that’s a decision that needs to be made.” He adds, “It wasn’t about any of the individuals. It wasn’t about the kind of performance that they do have within their job. It was about the essence of the responsibility of the job itself, and where it should rest within the grade structure of the city.”
There were ten employees that appealed the city's pay grade determinations. Four of them made successful arguments before the council, showing their job descriptions or responsibilities were not accurately represented by the study.
The council may consider other appeals and they may approve cost of living increases for staff at a later date.