43
Warren council approves pay raises for most workers
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Warren City Council has approved new contracts for most city workers that raise pay by 1.5 percent per year for each of the next three years. But it won’t cost the city a thing.
That’s because the contracts also include changes in the city’s health-care program at a level that will offset the increased pay, said Auditor David Griffing and Brian Massucci, the city’s human-resources director.
Massucci said he was not prepared to give out exact figures for the cost of implementing the pay increases and health-care changes because negotiations will continue next week with three bargaining units not yet under contract. The three units represent about 50 of the city’s 432 workers.
The main reason for making the change is to avoid the distinction of being one of the few government entities in the area that still does not require employees to pay a part of their health-care premium, Griffing said.
“We were probably the last one without a contribution, so [employees] were willing to contribute because everyone else does,” Griffing said.
The employees’ contribution in 2014 will be $40 per month for a single plan and $80 per month for a family plan.
The contribution rises to $50 per single and $100 for a family plan in the second and third years.
Those contributions will result in each employee paying about 5 percent of the cost of his or her plan.
There also will be higher deductibles in the plan than employees currently pay, he noted.
The city paid about $5.4 million under its self-insured health-care plan in 2013. Of the 432 employees, about 320 of them are covered by the city’s health care, officials said.
At the same time, the city felt that a pay increase was in order because Warren employees have not received one in several years, Griffing said. The average pay increase statewide is almost 1 percent annually, he added.
“So we wanted to do something. People [elsewhere] are getting raises that our people have not gotten. You want to pay a fair salary for the work they’re providing,” Griffing said.