A financial game of tag (you're it) between city union and nonunion employees now means another raise for the nonunion sector as a way to catch up, according to City Manager Rachael Tabelski.
This past year’s budget included 2.5 percent nonunion raises, up to $8,000 from initial salary figures in 2022-23 for positions including assistant manager, police and fire chief, public works and Human Resources directors.
Negotiations this year reaped a 3.5 percent raise for union employees, which prompted Tabelski to request another 1 percent raise for nonunion employees.
“As part of an ongoing dialogue with council we've talked about the wage compression we see at the top levels of the union, sergeants, detective sergeants, captains, and the non-union counterparts, which are your department heads, you're seeing here today,” Tabelski said during Monday’s conference meeting at City Hall. “We're trying to work on that issue. And as part of doing that council said they would entertain looking at ensuring that nonunion has the same monetary percentage raise every year as the highest non-union contract to keep that wage compression instead of going like this at a stable level.
"The goal is that we do hope internally that we can attract candidates from inside our departments moving forward. So this year, the nonunion this year, fiscal year 24-25, was awarded a 2.5% rate,” she said. “However, after the contract settled on April 1, the highest raise was 3.5%. So I'm asking for the additional 1% for the nonunion staff, as well as a floating holiday which would bring their holidays to 13 and a half in the near future.”
City Council agreed to bring the request of an additional 1% raise and a floating holiday for nonunion employees to vote at a future business meeting.
