Mahoning pay study to evaluate compensation by locale, position, consultant says

YOUNGSTOWN

Mahoning County officials launched a county employee compensation and classification study Tuesday with a public meeting at Oakhill Renaissance Place, which was attended by several dozen officials from a broad range of county government departments.

The meeting followed the county commissioners’ June 30 hiring of Evergreen Solutions LLC of Tallahassee, Fla., to perform the $65,000 study.

The study will compare Mahoning County employees’ compensation with that of their peers performing similar work in governments of counties of comparable size.

No pay raises can be promised to employees, but nobody’s pay will be reduced because of the study, Karen U’Halie, county human resources director, told county elected officials and department heads in her notice of Tuesday’s meeting.

“This doesn’t mean that every single position is going to get an increase,” in pay, Kevin S. Lundgren, Evergreen project manager, said of the pay study.

“If there are positions that are way above the market, we recommend leaving them where they are,” in salary, he told the audience.

“We hope to make sure that all of the employees are paid appropriately for the area and for their position,” he said. “We’ll take a look at other counties across the state and compare them as far as size, geographic location, similar type of income levels, and things like that,” he said, adding that the comparison counties haven’t yet been selected.

Read more about the matter in Wednesday's Vindicator or on VIndy.com.