Waukesha County to examine pay, benefits structure

By Laurel Walker of the Journal Sentinel

Waukesha - Waukesha County has hired a consultant to study the pay and benefits of county employees in an effort to answer questions from the public and elected officials about how the county's compensation system compares to the private sector as well as other governments.

In a memo to county employees Tuesday, Jim Richter, human resources manager, wrote, "In tough economic times, a great deal of pressure is placed on local governments to continue to provide high quality services with fewer and fewer resources. This type of environment tends to increase awareness of salaries and benefits of public sector employees and a general belief that public employees have overly generous benefits."

That was a central theme during last year's political storm around enactment of legislation that shifted pension and health care benefits onto certain public employees and all-but-eliminated public employee collective bargaining.

Waukesha County has 335 employees who were not union members and another 700 employees who were formerly in unions but no longer are since the change in state law that weakened union representation.

Pay for the first group was previously determined by job content, the market and general business practices, Richter said. Pay for the larger group had been determined by collective bargaining by unions that no longer represent those employees.

Richter, in earlier remarks to the County Board's Personnel Committee about the transition to a single system, said the work will be done in phases. The first step is to compare Waukesha County's total compensation package - pay and benefits - with the market. The second is to establish a pay policy and how the salary system should be structured. Eventually, job evaluations would be done for the newly nonrepresented employees.

The Segal Co., based in New York but with 22 offices around the country and in Canada, will be paid $65,000 to conduct the study.

"It is important to understand the value of our pay and benefits," Richter wrote. "We need to establish pay and benefit systems that will enable us to attract and retain a quality workforce as well as being responsive to new and different ways of compensating employees."

Any changes would require approval of both the county executive and County Board. The study is expected to be done sometime this fall, with changes in 2013 at the earliest.

In addition to the compensation study, a steering committee will be established to look at expanding the county's current pay-for-performance system, which has applied only to nonunion workers, to the newly non-unionized group.

In April, the Personnel Committee received a report on bonuses awarded last year under the system. According to the report, $593,211 was given to 429 nonunion employees in performance bonuses - most of it in one-time amounts rather than as additions to base salaries. Union employees were not eligible.

"The county is committed to pay for performance, and if there is expansion next year, it may be introduced on a gradual basis and most likely with one or two pilot groups," Richter wrote in his memo to employees Tuesday.