The results of the Wilkes County pay study are in, and they show many county employees in Wilkes get paid less than those in ten other area counties. But they also work a shorter week, so is the difference important? The president of the company that did the study says she doesn’t know the answer. Management and Personnel Services, or MAPS, from Cary was paid 30-thousand dollars to do the salary study, which did not consider the impact of the shorter work week on salary. President Rebecca Veazey told county commissioners last week the other counties are fairly evently split on whether employees work a 40-hour or a 37½ hour week.
Those just starting out in Wilkes make noticeably less than starting employees elsewhere in the area. But those at the top of the county pay scale make about what their counterparts elsewhere in the area do. That compresses the pay scale, Veazy said, possibly leading to decreased productivity and morale. The typical salary structure lets an employee increase their starting salary about half again before they should be promoted. But the range between starting pay and the top pay for a position in WIlkes is nearly a doubling in pay.
She recommended a table that allowed a 55-percent increase before a promotion. The commission asked her to return later this month with a scale that boost pay more at the lower levels than at the higher levels, and that takes the costs of benefits into the calculations of what an employee really makes.