There was spirited debate at the Edgerton city council meeting Dec. 13 over a proposed city staff pay raise.
Beth Linn, city administrator, presented the results of a compensation and benefits study that compared Edgerton’s city employees’ pay scales to those of employees in other cities in the region.
The study looked for cities that mimicked Edgerton in several categories including economic growth, workload and quality of life.
Linn told the council that Edgerton has unique characteristics that presented challenges in selecting the most comparable cities to conduct the study.
“Similar to the unique characteristics of having small town charm in our residential areas while being home to an international logistics hub, Edgerton staff experience the types and variety of work of both smaller and larger communities,” she said. The study compared Edgerton’s pay structure to those of Gardner, Olathe, Lenexa, Shawnee and Overland Park.
According to the study, there’s a huge disparity between Edgerton and other cities on assessed property valuation per employee and annual capital improvement budget per employee. Don Roberts, mayor, said the city needs to raise the pay for employees because the job market was tight, and it was becoming harder to attract and keep quality employees.
“There’s huge competition with the private sector, and what this study did was establish what the market is. We are able to see the market for what it is,” he said.
(Read more: Gardner News)