Cole County Commission agrees to give employees years-of-service pay

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Some Cole County employees will be seeing a pay bump this year.

The Cole County Commission at its Tuesday meeting approved years-of-service pay to employees. Employees will get $100 per year worked. The number of years of service will be determined by how long they were working as of Dec. 31, 2022.

There is $75,000 set aside for general-fund employees. There will still be $84,000 left in the general fund reserve. The cost from the Assessor’s Office fund will be more than $8,700.

During the meeting, it was stated by officials that this raise was considered to make positions more competitive. The raise will not be automatic every year.

It was not stated in the meeting when employees would start to see the increase.

Cole County Auditor Mark Ruether said the motion doesn’t do enough and suggested a salary study to be completed in order to see what a competitive salary would look like to prospective employees.

The HR director said it would be impossible to do an accurate study unless all job descriptions were submitted and reviewed. She said a study was attempted before and received a variety of responses from departments, from having one paragraph submitted for positions to “full-blown job descriptions.”