In the fall of 2020, the topic of employee wages and possible raises was brought to the attention of the Helper City Council.
Since then, a number of meetings have been hosted to discuss these possible raises and/or increases. Helper City Councilwoman Amanda Wheeler previously proposed a wage scale that the city could follow that was based on employee evaluations and a tier-like process for the raise amounts.
A special meeting was hosted on June 29 to speak further on this topic and it was determined that at least one more meeting would need to be hosted before a final decision was made, this one scheduled for Friday, July 2.
One public comment was received at that meeting from Cindy Lund. She stated that as a town, Helper is fortunate to have very dedicated employees that work for so little pay. Lund continued by stating that she has thought of this problem repeatedly and is surprised the city has the quality of employees they do and that this is not sustainable.
Lund explained that Helper is growing and demands will increase, urging the city to be competitive. She stated that the 3% raise is a start, but the city needs to figure out how to get everyone where they should be based on numerous qualifications. Lund acknowledged that this is a difficult situation.
However, she stressed that the cost for not paying employees more is losing the employees without being able to replace them, receiving low morale from the employees and more.
Following the reading of the public comment, the council moved to enter into a closed session in order to speak on a number of employees specifically regarding the 3% raise. Mayor Lenise Peterman later shed light on what was decided by the council regarding the raises and increases.
“The new budget year begins July 2021,” shared Mayor Peterman. “In our previous meeting, we adopted a budget which allowed for pay increases of roughly 3% based on all employee pay rates. The council reviewed and approved pay raises for all departments, except for the pool staff.”
Mayor Peterman explained that this was due to previous raises that had occurred in order to move pool staff in line with other city departments. The pay scale used will be a tool moving forward, according to mayor, which will assist future councils in determining each budget year if funds are available to adopt raises in that year.
Mayor Peterman stated that as a council, they were excited to grant raises nearly across the board to staff who are well-deserving of them. With a pay strategy now in place, the mayor said that Helper has a solid process that can be reviewed yearly based on financial and employee performance.
“This positions the city to ensure we are adequately and fairly compensating staff if funds are available to do so,” stated Mayor Peterman. “We would like to have done more for staff, but feel like this is a good start and we sincerely hope to see pay increases happen on a more regular basis in the future.”