City of Great Bend looking to increase minimum wage to $15.50

By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post

The City of Great Bend is always looking to stay competitive in the job market and one of the first ways of recruiting and retaining employees is by having good wages. Assistant City Administrator Logan Burns said the city wanted to reevaluate their pay rates after Barton County raised their minimum starting wage to $15 per hour.

At Monday’s Great Bend City Council work session, Burns presented the governing body options for increasing pay to all city employees for the next budget. Mayor Cody Schmidt said last year the city handed out 5% raises, but additional wage bumps are needed.

"From my line of work, from what I do to back some of these department heads...it's the dollar they take home that feeds their family," said Schmidt. "I think the overall number they take home to feed their family in today's world is what people are looking for."

The council’s preferred option is to raise employees to a $15.50 minimum wage, give any employee over the minimum a 50-cent increase and provide up to 2%-merit raises. By bringing up newly hired staff to $15.50, the city is combating a wage compression issue by providing all other employees a 50-cent raise.

Great Bend Utilities Superintendent Reuben Martin said the merit raise, or pay increases based on evaluations, are needed to treat and reward employees fairly.

"If I'm not able to give someone an evaluation raise at the end of the year for going above and beyond, what that does is allow this guy over here who is working his butt off every day, and a guy over here that doesn't really care...you're not rewarding the first person," said Martin. "Everybody gets that first raise. The new guys go up. At the end of the year, this guy had four times as much production as this guy over here. You're telling the hard worker he is the same as the guy that doesn't care."

The preferred option would add approximately $272,305 to Great Bend’s upcoming budget. Burns said the city will wait until they get more accurate valuation figures from the county before proceeding with the pay raises.