By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Reno County commissioners approved a contract with a firm that will conduct a salary and compensation study. The contract with the Arnold Group will cost the county $56,118. The county received six proposals.
The study comes at the request of county commissioners who decided the study was necessary following a work session in November. Rene Harris says it is getting harder to keep employees at some county jobs and making sure they can get a competitive wage.
“People are coming in. We had one this week not enrolled in health insurance saying, 'I can’t pay it,'” Harris said. “And that’s a sad thing.”
Harris says being able to compete with the private sector is being made harder by the amount of benefits the private sector can provide.
“Our deductibles and copays and things like that were much lower than the private industry, but I don’t think that’s as much anymore,” Harris said. “We’ve got pretty high deductibles that employees have to make.”
During the discussion on Tuesday, Commissioner Daniel Friesen said he would like to see a study on wages come more often.
“I just know from private business experience, we don’t do a five-year look, we’re constantly looking at the competitive landscape,” Friesen said. “When a job goes out they’re typically looking at what the market is. The market can change quite a bit in five years.”
The last time the county did a wage study was in 2016.
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