COEUR d'ALENE - Employees of Kootenai County are making on average 16 percent below market wages, according to a recent market comparability study.

Consultants recommended the commissioners spend $415,680 to get those who are underpaid up to market standards, and secondly, they recommended budgeting an additional 1 percent increase - or $153,420 - across the board to give those who are at their pay scales a small increase as well.

In total, the increase would be $569,100 if adopted.

There are approximately 120-140 employees who would not get any raises because they are already over market rates.

"Please understand that each of the alternatives above is a Band-Aid. The county will still have employee discontent with pay rates," the study stated. "The good news is that reconfiguring the county's salary schedules to better align with market rates will at least make the schedule more competitive in the marketplace - it is a start."

Andrea Fogleman and Bonnie Brazier, owners of human resource consulting firm BDPA Inc., presented the findings of the study to County Commissioners and other elected county officials Monday morning.

Fogleman told the commissioners that they surveyed 19 different governments to determine fair market wages in the region. Twelve of those were Idaho governments, four were in Washington and three were in Montana.

The consultants looked at alternative comparisons by removing Montana, which resulted in county workers earning 17 percent less than their colleagues. With Montana and Washington removed county wages were still 9.5 percent below the market. With just the cities of Cheney and Spokane removed wages were 13 percent below the market, which also revealed that Washington wages skewed the overall results by 3 percent.

"The commissioners considered city of Coeur d'Alene wages above the market, so we removed those for an overall market ratio of 15.8 percent below," Fogleman said, adding that after some preliminary discussions with commissioners, it was decided to use the full results from all 19 respondents to develop recommended salary adjustments.

The commissioners also instructed Fogleman to develop recommendations that get county employees 3.5 percent below the market data to adjust for the Washington and city of Coeur d'Alene discrepancies.

"I want you to know that I disagree with that goal," Commissioner Jai Nelson said during the presentation.

Commissioner Todd Tondee acknowledged Nelson's concerns and asked Fogleman to proceed. She went on to say that the county's benefit packages are competitive.

Commissioner Dan Green asked if the county's health insurance program skewed the results at all.

Fogleman said low cost insurance premiums did make the compensation package look less rich, but explained they are smaller because the county is self-funded.

Considering the benefits package, Fogleman said the county's total compensation is still 15.4 percent below market.

The county has four pay scales that cause a little disparity between sworn police officers, emergency communications officers, county attorneys and general employees.

The emergency and police officers get step increases, but the other employees get what's called an open range pay structure.

"That creates a disparity in those positions," she said, adding the internal structure has lost integrity over time.

Based on that analysis, the consultant made a number of recommendations.

"BDPA recommends a new salary schedule for Kootenai County based on the market data collected," she wrote in the summary of recommendations. "The county's decision to lag the market by 3.5 percent is applied to the schedules."

That recommendation would streamline the county's 20 pay grades, so employees have a better understanding of the structure.

She also recommended developing a pay philosophy that explains how employees can expect to move through the assigned salary ranges.

"You keep saying pay philosophy," Tondee said. "We have some of that in our manual."

Fogleman said there is a difference between administrative guidelines for pay, and how pay will be allocated. For instance, a pay philosophy defines the way pay increases will be awarded either by merit or some other structure.

Administrative guidelines define how employee status changes are made such as promotions, transfers or reclassifications.

The county should also budget for market adjustments to the salary scales to prevent the system from losing integrity again. The commission should also budget for additional raises to move employees through the pay ranges.

Furthermore, they said the community should consider re-analyzing how jobs are assigned to pay grades, and develop a performance management system.

Monday's meeting was informational and no action was taken. Commissioners Tondee and Green said that they will likely hold another meeting to discuss how much of an increase they give employees, and how best to allocate that increase.

"We've identified the money, but not how to allocate it," Tondee said, adding commissioners will have to decide whether they will allocate those dollars or allow each elected county official to allocate the money within their departments.

"We will have that discussion," Green said. "But we really don't have to make a decision until we are approaching Oct. 1st."