Jan. 28,2020 | Ellensburg | Daily Record~~~
Kittitas County Human Resources Director Lisa Young said this year’s wage comparison survey included two counties on the West Side for the first time.
As the cost of living goes up in Kittitas County, local government is making strides to ensure their employees are compensated at par with places in the state that are seeing similar increases.
The Kittitas County Board of Commissioners approved a wage increase for all non-union, non-department head employees at a meeting on Jan. 14. On Jan. 21, the commissioners voted to include department heads with a proviso that certain positions at that level would have special considerations, due to the lack of comps available for those positions. Those positions include the public waste and events center director, largely because very few counties within the state have those positions. Union agreements for the wage increase are ongoing. The county has approximately 300 regular employees.
Kittitas County Human Resources Director Lisa Young said this year’s wage comparison survey included two counties on the West Side for the first time. The survey included Skagit and Pierce Counties, due to the similarities they share with Kittitas County in property value and cost of living. Historically, she said the survey only used population-based comparison, using three counties with populations above and three below. In the last wage survey conducted in 2017, the county included the surrounding counties of Yakima, Grant, and Chelan, as well as the city of Ellensburg and Kittitas Valley Healthcare. More on wage increase
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