A wage increase may not be in the cards for a little more than half of Marinette County’s non-union employees in 2021. Thursday the Administrative Committee heard a recommendation from County Administrator John Lefebvre to advance all employees in the county’s wage study who are below a step 6 one step, but to withhold the cost of living adjustment for all staff members for the 2021 calendar year. Lefebvre says the County’s goal is to keep the compensation and classification plan closely in-line with the national labor market and he doesn’t believe that will increase much over the next year due to the economic impacts of COVID-19. Committee Chairperson Rick Polzin agrees with the move and calls it a reasonable solution in the wake of so much uncertainty.

The budgetary impact of granting an approximately 1.3% cost of living adjustment to the county’s employees would be around $250000. Supervisor Don Pazynski is apprehensive about denying that increase saying it could impact employee morale.

The vote on whether to approve Lefebvre’s recommendation for county wage adjustments was split 3 to 3. That means the proposal will be forwarded on to the full County Board with no recommendation from the Administrative Committee.