Bigger paychecks next year for city and county employees

City and county employees can look forward to some raises in the new year.

The Wichita City Council and the Sedgwick County Commission both approved new pay packages for municipal government workers this week.

Most county employees will get a 2.5 percent increase.

Wichita city workers will get less across the board, between 1 and 2 percent depending on their union contract or job classification.

But most city workers will be eligible for merit raises up to 2.5 percent.

The changes in employee compensation will add about $3.2 million in spending to the county budget and an additional $356,000 for Fire District No. 1, which is run by the county commissioners.

Wichita’s raises will increase city spending by about $800,000.

The county went with a general pay increase this year as it transitions to a new performance evaluation process. The idea there was to give employees and managers time to adjust to the new process before basing raises and bonuses on it.

Dave Unruh, chairman of the commission, said the new pay plan will allow the county to be competitive while incentivizing people to do well.

“It’s the result of a lot of evaluation and it’s the right thing to do,” Unruh said.

Commissioner Richard Ranzau voted against the new evaluation process and pay plan.

He did vote in favor of the 2.5 percent general pay adjustment, which was approved unanimously as part of a bulk consent agenda.

Ranzau said he opposed the new process because a large portion of future pay adjustments won’t be based on merit.

He said the county’s previous pay for performance plan should be continued.

The same pay adjustment and pay plan were approved for Fire District 1 employees.

The City Council passed its pay plan without any discussion.

City Hall’s pay plan is slightly more complicated because of differing employee union contracts.

Employees represented by Service Employees International Union will get an across-the-board 1 percent hike.

That’s the lowest increase among employees.

Management and non-union workers will get 1.5 percent.

Employees with Wichita Transit and the Airport Police/Fire Department, who are represented by the Teamsters Union, will get the biggest across-the-board raise, 2 percent.

But that won’t take effect until June, while the other departments will get their raises between now and the end of the year.

The city is negotiating new contracts with the police and fire unions, so their raises weren’t voted on this week.

This story was originally published December 15, 2017 at 6:33 AM with the headline "Bigger paychecks next year for city and county employees."