(Guthrie Center) The Guthrie County Board of Supervisors held a discussion on Tuesday with Facilities Manager Brandon Thompson on the employee pay scale.
In an effort to attract more applicants, the starting wage will be going up. Thompson’s department has had an opening for a position with a starting wage of $17.50 per hour while some departments and/or other counties had similar openings available at over $20 per hour. “It’s hard to compete with that. People are stepping up wages. Anything over $20 people look at it more serious.”
They’ve been advertising the current vacancy for several months. Thompson says there have only been a couple of serious applicants. “We were first at $16.50 and then we went to $17.50 and we are getting very little input on it.”
It was also pointed out that increasing the starting wage would force the department to increase wages for existing employees. Thompson’s suggestion was to move the starting wage up to $20.50 per hour with a scheduled increase to $21.00 after six months of employment. The Supervisors made a motion to do so as well as increase their existing employee’s wage by $2.25 per hour to $23.68.
Supervisors expressed an additional hire on staff is of particular importance with the ongoing construction project for the new Guthrie County Jail.
In other activity, Sheriff Marty Arganbright has been appointed to be Guthrie County’s Representative on the Region XII Regional Housing Authority Board of Directors.
