Wasilla pay scale gets a work over

WASILLA — Shortly after signing a third union contact, the city council voted unanimously to put all non-union city employees on a pay scale consistent with their organized co-workers.

The overhaul of much of the personnel section of the Wasilla Municipal Code was long overdue, said Gwen Brew, human resource officer for the city.

There were redundancies in the code, and major policies captured in the miscellaneous section needed to be fleshed out further, she said.

The biggest change came in the compensation of non-union workers, a group that includes the clerk’s office, the planning and finance departments, and the library and museum staffs.

In the past, annual raises were based on a range of percentages and determined after an employee’s yearly review. However, Brew said, this led to ambiguity, as the percentage of the raise was largely determined by the employee’s supervisor.

The new pay scale is a grade-step scale, Brew said. Starting on July 1, non-union employees will be put on the salary grade closest to what they are making now. The term focal review was stricken, and employees get a set pay raise after an acceptable annual performance evaluation.

The raise is 2.5 percent per year until employees reach the midpoint, and 2.25 percent per year from the midpoint to the upper limit.

The scale is based on the Anchorage consumer buying index for the last three years, and it can be shifted to make sure it is competitive within the job market.

Brew said the grade-step system more accurately reflects what is happening in the unions.

“It was time for the annual performance evaluations anyway,” Brew said. “It’s important there is no disparity between the groups. The new way the salary administration is handled is very comparable.”

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.