Travis County to look at cost-of-living adjustments and pay increases for in-person workers

Travis County commissioners recently discussed whether the county can increase pay for its non-remote workers, as well as the possibility of cost-of-living wage increases.

Todd Osburn of the county’s compensation office on June 27 briefed the Travis County Commissioners Court on several compensation issues. Also up for discussion: holiday pay and a program that would allow certain employees to sell back unused leave time.

Osburn said that the compensation committee has been discussing many of the issues highlighted in his presentation.

“Probably not everything that I’m going to talk about today is going to be approved by the commissioners down the road, but I just want to put these on your radar for now and let you know what types of things that we’re hearing about and that people are asking for in compensation,” Osburn said.

Factoring the cost of living into salary equations likely would increase pay for the county’s Austin-area employees. And paying full-time, in-person employees a little extra would add consideration to the fact that those workers don’t have the privilege of working remotely. Consultants from Deloitte and Segal Group are looking into the efficacy of both programs, Osburn said.

The Segal Group, a consulting and survey firm, is conducting a “high-profile” market-salary survey. Osburn said the group is in the process of merging market and classification data to create a new classification system. (“We haven’t had an outside consultant do this for over 25 years,” Osburn added.) The Segal Group will return to the court July 18 with results.

“My recollection is that for the first time – maybe ever – we’ve asked our consultants to also look at cost of living,” Commissioner Brigid Shea said. “That’s a significant piece of the look that we’re giving to comparative pay.”

The county also is looking at changing its hourly minimum wage from $20 to $22. But Osburn mentioned that pay-scale “compression” is an issue that can spring up from raising the minimum wage, where new employees are suddenly making similar amounts to much more experienced ones. He said consultants are looking into ways to mitigate that problem.

“We believe that there is a strong probability – or at least a possibility – that the city will move their minimum wage from $20 to $22 an hour,” Osburn said. “The question will be, does the county want to try to match that type of an action? And obviously, I can’t speak for the Commissioners Court, but that is something that would obviously have a price tag and something that we are keeping an eye on.”

Osburn also said that last year’s 5 percent across-the-board pay increase in the county was the largest increase of its type that he’d seen in 14 years of working and that it was a huge morale boost for county employees.

Photo by Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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