Commissioners consider current county wages, vacation time

Missouri’s minimum wage rose to $10.30 per hour on Jan. 1, and with President Joe Biden and other politicians pushing to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, the county, as well as many local businesses, are nervously looking toward the future.

At their meeting last week, the Ozark County Commissioners and Ozark County Clerk Brian Wise discussed the idea of long-term retention of current county employees by offering the incentive of increased vacation time after they are employed for specified numbers of years. One benefit already offered to county employees is the opportunity to have health insurance with the county paying approximately 80 percent of the monthly premium.

 

Revisiting increased vacation time

At this week’s Monday morning meeting, Wise nudged the increased vacation time suggestion into the commissioners’ minds again.

“I want to bring up and keep us thinking about the vacation time,” Wise said. “We’ll put it on an agenda to discuss.”

“That way we can get some thoughts on it and kind of figure out,” Presiding Commissioner John Turner said. “At this point, now, if you’re here three years in most departments, you max out on your vacation. So, if you’re here for 20 years, you don’t get a day more of vacation than if you’re here for three years. With the possible raising of minimum wage and various things… inflation, for one… it’s one thing we can do to try to keep employees rather than raise wages.”

 

Discussing minimum wage

Wise said he’d urge the commissioners to also look at raising wages as well as implementing the additional vacation days as a way to keep employees. 

“We’ve got to figure out some way to be fair to everybody,” Eastern District Commissioner Gary Collins said during the Feb. 1 commission meeting. “Say somebody comes in today and gets hired in at $13 [an hour], and the guy that’s been here 20 years is only making $14 [an hour]….”

“That doesn’t give you a lot of incentive to stay… and with minimum wage going up like it is, you can nearly go to McDonald’s and flip burgers for the same amount,” Turner said. 

“I would definitely look at wages. I’d want to look specifically at the recycling center [employees]. I know it’s crazy, but we don’t have to follow minimum wage laws,” Wise said, referring to a law that exempts public employees, such as those who work for a county, and employees of private businesses with gross annual sales of $500,000 or less per year from set minimum wage.

“No, we’re not subject to minimum wage laws, but you have to keep help. You’ve got to go above minimum wage, or otherwise they’ll say, ‘I’ll go down to the convenience store down here and make more money than I’m making for you smelling all this trash all day [at the recycling center] or whatever,’” Turner said. 

Collins asked Wise to have his office prepare a spreadsheet that details each county employee’s wage. 

“A can of beans will be about $14 a can by the time we’re done,” Collins said. “You raise minimum wage up to $15, and stuff in the store is going to go up.”

“Yeah, well, that’s just the way it is,” Turner said. “It’s a double-edged sword.”

When asked later, Wise confirmed that the county currently has one employee who is not making minimum wage of $10.30 per hour. 

 

The fluxuation of minimum wage

The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour; however, Missouri’s minimum wage is currently higher than the federal minimum wage. It is currently $10.30 per hour and, by law, will gradually increase to $12 an hour in 2023. The increase is in response to Proposition B, which was approved by Missouri voters on Nov. 6, 2018. The legislation calls for a minimum age increase of 85 cents per hour each year through 2023. 

The state minimum wage was $7.85 in 2018, $8.60 in 2019, $9.45 in 2020 and $10.30 in 2021. 

Biden called for a $15 per hour minimum wage during his campaign and has followed through by including it in his proposed $1.9 trillion stimulus plan now being negotiated with Congress. The proposal has received support from congressional Democrats and opposition from congressional Republicans. 

Ozark County Times

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