COEUR d'ALENE - A recent salary survey conducted by BDPA, Inc., shows a lot of disparity in pay between certain departments in Kootenai County.

Overall, county employees are paid 16 percent below average wages for the same jobs in 19 different governments in Washington, Montana and Idaho.

Still, about 140 employees are over their average market wage, and of those 18 employees are over the maximum market value for the job they are performing. Nine of those employees are in salaried positions.

The two positions with highest percentage, 136 percent, over market average are the Public Defender and Supervisor of Operations at the Coeur d'Alene Airport. The Public Defender is also the highest paid employee at nearly $99,000 per year.

The prosecuting attorney was not part of the salary survey because it is an elected position.

The county has no employees making more than $100,000 per year, said Commissioner Dan Green.

On the flip side the county has 24 clerical employees making 73 percent to 78 percent of the market average. The other clerks and secretaries are scattered across various county departments.

Nine Spotter Scale Recyclers at the county's solid waste department are also making 78 percent of what they should be making.

The two lowest paid positions are jail booking clerks, who make $10.15 an hour and should be making a minimum $12.05 per hour.

Some departments have a large number of employees making over market average, such as 911, which has 13 general employees and only one is below market average.

The assessor's mapping department is also paid above market average, with seven employees making above and one employee at 87 percent of average.

Information Systems has 15 employees, and 11 of them are over market average, with four others within 90 percent of average.

Solid Waste, on the other hand, has 52 of its 57 employees being paid under the market average.

All five of the County Commission's staff is under the average pay scale. The five employees in Building and Grounds are also under paid.

With the exception of the Supervisor of the Criminal District Court Clerks, who only exceeds average by 2 percent, seven of those employees are under paid.