Shoshone County rethinking COLA decision

WALLACE –– In the wake of a recent decision from the Shoshone Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) to set the county employee 2023/24 cost of living adjustment at 1% in order to meet their budgetary needs – the board is now looking at figuring out a way to make up the difference for their employees.

At the county level, the cost of living adjustment, or COLA, refers to an increase in an employee's rate of pay based on estimates of how much money is required to maintain a given standard of living. These pay adjustments are applied to wages or salaries, and benefits packages and are intended to offset inflation.

While nothing will be set in stone until the budget gets finalized in September, in order to make sure that there is enough money in the county stores to finance the budgetary needs of each department the board made the decision to pursue their fiscal year budget with a 1% COLA earmarked for all of their employees.

Last week’s decision wasn’t well-received throughout the various departments for several reasons, which led BOCC chairman Dave Dose to see if he and the other two commissioners could figure out a solution.

Last year, the former BOCC approved a 7% COLA for the employees, which still didn’t cover the historically high inflation levels that the country was experiencing. Now, even with inflation numbers showing a steady month-over-month decline, the 1% simply isn’t cutting it.

Currently, the national rate of inflation is sitting at 3%.

There were also frustrations because the county Roads Department and the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office had restructured their pay scales, which increased the amount and frequency that they could offer raises for their employees. Not every department was able to accomplish this restructuring process, leading to further disparity in pay among the various departments.

Dose proposed a solution, one that he had to sell to his fellow board members, but was able to get unanimous approval on.

The first step was to maintain the 1% COLA for the time being as they navigated the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The next step was to set aside 2% of the employee wages – roughly $85,000 – which will sit in the general reserves. The next step is to conduct a wage study that will help the county make sure that they are in line with other like-sized counties throughout the state in terms of pay for their employees.

According to Dose, the wage study will be paid for using LATCF funds which were established through the American Rescue Plan of 2021, commonly known as ARPA.

“We’re going to commit to a long-range promise that no one has seemingly been able to keep and conduct a wage study,” Dose said. “We think that that the study will be the best way for us to protect our employees.”

Should the wage study determine that pay increases are in order – which Dose and the board expect – and the fiscal year budget allows for it, the 2% in the general reserve will be added to the current 1%.

There are a few caveats to this, however. Because of the recent restructuring of the pay scales for the Roads and Sheriff’s Departments, they will remain at the 1% COLA for the coming year.

The board approved moving the county’s Solid Waste Department under the same pay scale as the Roads Department.

“We did quite a bit of compromising here,” Dose said. “But it’s important to remember that none of this is official yet, and nothing will be until we officially adopt the budget in September.”