Trumbull corrections officers get pay increases of $1.15 per hour over 3 years

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Sixty-four corrections officers at the Trumbull County jail will receive base-pay increases averaging 38 cents per hour for three years retroactive to Jan. 1, 2014.

The county commissioners approved the raises last week. The workers are represented by the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association.

The total cost of the increases to the county have not been calculated yet because 17 months’ worth of raises are retroactive, and the new pay rates will affect the amount each officer is paid for overtime they worked in 2014 and 2015, officials said.

The raises increase pay 45 cents per hour in 2014, 45 cents per hour in 2015 and 25 cents per hour in 2016. The base increase raises each officer’s wages $2,392 over the three years, or $153,088 for 64 workers.

The new contract also calls for three additional step-increases — one of 17.5 cents after five years of service and two added step-increase tiers paying an additional 25 cents per hour each. The jail also has 24 other employees, most of whom will get pay increases similar to the corrections officers’, said Jim Keating, county human-resources director.

Leslie Stredney, human- resources director for the sheriff’s office, referred questions about the total cost of the pay raises to Atty. Curtis Ambrosy, but Ambrosy did not reply to a message left at his office.

Under the previous agreement, a starting corrections officer earned $14.51 per hour, $14.71 per hour after the first year and $18.02 after the fourth year.

Under the new agreement, the starting wage in 2016 will be $15.66, $15.86 after one year and $19.17 after four years.

Ernie Cook, chief deputy with the sheriff’s office, said the agreement “pretty much mirrors” what the deputies received in their new contract several months ago. The deputies’ contract was dictated by an arbitrator’s decision that went in favor of the county.

Deputies received the same $1.15 per hour increase over three years as the corrections officers and two step-increases of 25 cents per hour. Their increases also were retroactive to Jan. 1, 2014.

Most other county workers have in recent months received pay increases averaging 30 cents per hour for three years. Those include workers in the clerk of courts, treasurer’s, building inspection and sanitary engineer’s offices.

Keating said the pay increases for the corrections officers equate to about 1.5 percent each year. Cook said hourly-wage increases are better for the county than percentage increases because of how much wages at the top of the scale cost the county when a percentage is used.

Hourly increases give lower-paid workers a higher- percentage increase than the higher-paid workers, Cook said.