News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Monterey Mayor JJ Reels said drastic changes are needed to the town’s employee pay scale.
Reels said that employees are currently maxing out their pay in one year of employment. Reels said he’s consulted with other municipalities to compare employee pay numbers.
“Just small incremental pay raises, that way it’s balanced and employees are not making the same amounts, they’re working towards those higher amounts,” Reels said. “It’s kind of an incentive for them to stay, for longevity.”
Reels said the employee’s 3 percent cost of living raise has been rolled into the pay scale, saying the one year raise kept going up 3 percent.
“One job right now, it goes from at six months it’s $16 and some change,” Reels said. “Then at one year, their pay would go up to $26. So, there’s such a drastic need to fix this. Because the employees are maxed out at their pay scale at one year. There’s no yearly raise, it should be more of a step system.”
Reels said the next steps are to complete the pay scale proposal and submit it to Monterey’s Financial Committee. He said the goal is to get the pay scale change into this year’s fiscal budget.
