County to give raises to non-union workers

Pay increase slated to take effect June 25

NORRISTOWN » A number of Montgomery County employees will soon receive a bump in their paychecks after the Montgomery County Salary Board unanimously authorized raises.

The 3-percent “base wage increase” will take effect on June 25, according to an email sent to employees by Barbara O’Malley, Montgomery County’s deputy chief operating officer.

“We have been discussing the very important need of salary increases for our employees,” Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chairwoman Val Arkoosh said during a June 2 meeting.

O’Malley structured a “three-pronged approach” in an email sent to all county employees.

In addition to the raises, other priorities were emphasized, including a “$500 referral bonus to assist in recruitment of a new employee” as well as “signon bonuses for new hires taking hard-to-fill county jobs and premium pay for positions designated as essential as defined by federal funding criteria.”

Montgomery County Communications Director Kelly Cofrancisco told MediaNews Group that the incentive plan is “a way to recognize our employees but also help to recruit talent as well.”

Commissioners unanimously authorized a $15-per-hour minimum wage for county employees in January 2021.

Montgomery County employs about 2,700 people, according to Cofrancisco.

While Montgomery County Director of Human Resources Donna Pardieu did not offer comment during last week’s salary board meeting, the resolution stipulates that “qualified full-and-part-time employees” are eligible to receive the increased compensation.

Several parameters prohibit several parties including elected officials, as well as “employees otherwise covered by a separate agreement or resolution, and those employees who are active in the retirement process,” Arkoosh noted.

While Arkoosh noted in the action that “employees who are members of a bargaining union, including those employees subject to a ‘status quo’ requirement,” would be disqualified, Montgomery County Commissioners’ Vice Chairman Ken Lawrence Jr. inquired if “we are working with the bargaining units so this will apply to them as well?”

“Absolutely, yes,” said Solicitor Josh Stein. “We are in the process of doing that for all the units.”

County officials stressed the importance of doing something to help county workers struggling with staggering expenses across the board as inflation has reached a 40-year high in the past year.

“I just want to acknowledge we know that this has been a really difficult time for many of our employees,” Arkoosh said. “These last couple of years have been difficult in so many different ways — and obviously everyone is facing increasing costs in the grocery store, and at the gas pump — but this is an acknowledgment of those challenges, and the high regard with which we hold our county employees, our county family and we hope that this will make some progress in making people feel comfortable and able to support and sustain their families.”