Commissioners ask county officials to review wage study proposal

WALLACE –– The Shoshone County Commissioners are moving closer to completing a long-awaited wage study.  

On Wednesday, Commissioners Jeff Zimmerman and Tracy Casady asked the county’s elected officials and department heads to review a proposal from Thompson Consulting Group.  

According to their proposal, Thompson Consulting would complete a wage study based on 20 unique employee positions within the county, comparing the wages and benefits of those positions in other similar-sized counties across Idaho to determine if Shoshone County is compensating its employees equitably.  

The Boise-based firm is one of a handful of companies expected to submit bids for the maligned project.  

The county had previously contracted the job out to Meridian-based firm AmeriBen, with the goal of having the study completed by the end of September. However, roughly two weeks before the deadline, Commissioner Casady was informed that they would not have Shoshone County’s wage study completed by their deadline and that they were doing away with the human resources consulting sector of their business. 

This frustrating situation sent the commissioners back to the drawing board, but there is a silver lining.  

The original contract with AmeriBen came with a potential cost of $26,000, but the county could cut that price in half if they completed some of the data collection work internally. In its proposal to the county, Thompson Consulting has assured them that the project will not cost more than $7,000 unless the county requests additional work.  

A further benefit is that Thompson Consulting would be able to use the data that was previously collected.  

Before moving forward, the commissioners would like their department heads and elected officials to review and sign off on the proposal before they approve anything.  

“We don’t want to move until they have an opportunity to see the scope of work they have and what they’re able to do,” Zimmerman said. “What I want everyone to do, is look at it and come back and talk to us about it. We want to get ideas from our elected and our department heads, so we get the right wage study.”