As you may recall our goal for 2017 COLA was around .7 - which was the highest I found without doing too much number twisting. The highest loose thread was 2.4 percent increase if you take away energy and gasoline, with the highest increase being child care. That is an extreme outlier that I would only reference if a 0 was offered. A cost of living allowance is to keep an employees budget predictable and lifestyle stable.
CPI as a whole, actually indexed in the negative.
Now the actual proposal...
Cost of Living Allowance 2.25 with a movement of the 1st step again.
Management spoke about staying competitive regionally, even nationally, and that we are staffed well right now. We are begging to pull higher quality applicants with a higher wage.
Feedback from last year has shown that a few people feel that the new people benefit more than established employees... Which numerically speaking (Starting employee ~6% instead of a 2.25% ). I am not going to dismiss any views of negatively as they are valid feelings.
The real question that LeNora and I had to ask is, do we reject the proposal and counter with our 1.5 and possibly settle for less - the CPI was negative - or accept that 2.25 for a majority of employees is a better deal.
LeNora and I accepted the proposal. Now it is time to ask questions and vote.
Contact me any way by phone 605-376-4238, personal email ja_hoffman@hotmail.com or work email jhoffman@911metro.org
Next Meeting is March 27th 13:30 and 19:00 If there are no objections I will send out a Surveymonkey again for voting on Monday 28th voting to be completed before 10:00 hrs March 30th.
