By james art BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – A recent survey found East Baton Rouge City-Parish has a pay problem. The Management Advisory Group study found that starting pay is too low but benefits, such as pensions, are too high, making it difficult to fill positions.
“You’re going to keep hiring people who are poorly qualified and you hope you can train them and develop them, but when you do, someone else will take them because the wages are so low,” said Dr Russell Campbell with the Advisory Group for management. “Your pension plans are very, very generous, but unsustainable. You won’t be able to sustain this indefinitely without massive tax increases or some other source of revenue. You just aren’t.”
To change that, the study found, it would cost the city-parish an additional $20 million. This figure does not include benefits. That would bring the starting salary of a Baton Rouge police officer to $52,657. It is currently $40,906. Solving this problem is not so simple.
“We can’t just go to one division or department and say now we’re going to raise wages here to increase the number of people employed.” We have to look at this holistically,” said Metro member Rowdy Gaudet.
The survey found that younger people in the workforce care less about benefits and more about their salary.
“In some aspects, local government cannot and will not compete with the private sector, but we have to find ways that we can retain these quality employees,” Gaudet added.
WAFB is told there is a city-parish with open positions that haven’t been filled in years. The hiring challenge can be made difficult by the city of St. George.
“There are some plans that are being implemented. I know they’re negotiating and trying to get the contract done and everything, but that’s going to play a big part in this whole thing,” Metro Councilman Aaron Moak said.
Metro council members are in the very early stages of trying to figure that out. They said whatever plan is chosen will not affect current employees. It would be for newbies only.
The Office of the Mayor and President sent the following statement regarding the pay survey:
“Mayor President Broome will present a balanced budget to Metropolitan Council early next month, as he does every year, with careful planning to address the transition of the new City of St. George. Understanding the importance of competitiveness in today’s job market, Mayor-President Broome remains committed to modernizing City-Parish compensation to ensure we remain a regional leader. On September 25, 2024, the consultant presented findings from the wage compensation study, estimating the total cost of the proposed increase at approximately $32 million, including benefits. The recommendation is to implement these adjustments in stages over several years to gradually strengthen our workforce. The next phase of this study will include a comprehensive review of current health care and retirement benefit plans, seeking improvements in plan structure while maintaining the quality of benefits and the strength of our retirement offerings.
Click here to report a typographical error. Please include the title.
Click here to subscribe to our daily WAFB 9 news roundup and breaking news alerts delivered straight to your email inbox.
Copyright 2024 WAFB. All rights reserved.