Analysis: Bloomington’s living wage to hit $16.22 an hour in 2025, but work like video services is left out
In 2025, Bloomington’s “living wage” will reach $16.22 an hour.
Of that $16.22, up to $2.43 can be in the form of health insurance offered to a covered employee.
The increase in 2025 will boost Bloomington’s living wage by $0.47 an hour (about 3 percent) from the 2024 level of $15.75.
Enacted in 2005 by Bloomington’s city council, the living wage at the start was set at $10, with a provision that it increase by an amount based on the CPI (consumer price index).
Who has to meet the living wage standard in Bloomington?
The living wage does not have to be paid by every employer inside the city limits. But it does affect employers who have a contract with the city to perform certain services.
In 2022, then assistant city attorney Barbara McKinney responded to a B Square question indicating that she did not believe that Monroe County Public Library’s CATS (Community Access Television Services) was a “covered employer” under the ordinance.
It is only employers who provide certain services under a contract with the city that are covered under the ordinance.
Among the employers affected by the living wage ordinance are those who have contracts to perform “security services.” That includes the contract approved this last week by Bloomington’s RDC (redevelopment commission) with Marshall Security—to provide patrols in the new Hopewell neighborhood that is under construction in the area of the former IU Health hospital.
There’s a note in the material provided by Marshall Security to the RDC that acknowledges the city’s living wage ordinance: “An increase to the city’s livable wage requirement will result in a modified bill rate.”
The list of services to which Bloomington’s living wage applies includes: food services; janitorial and custodial services; security services; parking lot management; waste management; automotive repair; landscaping; utility and building maintenance; carpentry; clerical and office services; street maintenance and repair; sidewalk construction; laundry services; pest control; resident and day shelter services.
The list does not, for example, include services related to video recording.
The recording of public meetings—of the city council, or the redevelopment commission, among others—is handled through a contract with CATS (Community Access Television Services), which is housed within the Monroe County Public Library.
The amount of the 2024 contract between the city of Bloomington and CATS is $464,969—which was just a 1-percent increase from 2023.
CATS technicians have a job code of 110 under the library’s wage schedule which has a range of $15.95 to $23.12 per hour in 2024.
The low end of the range is smidgen better—20 cents an hour more—than the living wage standard, even if video recording services don’t appear to be covered under Bloomington’s ordinance.
Wages for CATS technicians could be pushed up by a few different factors. The city council could expand the list of services subject to the ordinance, and combine that with an increase to the living wage ordinance. Or the city’s expectations could change for the range of work that CATS technicians do.
The second possible factor could come from a redefinition of job responsibilities. A report from the city council’s special committee on council processes, delivered at the end of 2023, suggests establishing a new deputy clerk position that would, among other things, assess “whether or how to change or augment the City’s current practice of contracting with Community Access Television Services (CATS) for video recordings.”
If a change in the CATS contract required technicians to do more or different kinds of work—like administering Zoom hosting duties, or archiving Zoom recordings, that could have an impact on how much technicians would need to be paid.
The idea of substantially raising the city’s living wage has been hinted at recently.
At the city council’s Aug. 26 budget hearing, councilmember Matt Flaherty raised the question of whether the amount of the city’s living wage is adequate. Flaherty pointed to the fact that there are some analyses that indicate the actual living wage, for someone who is supporting only themselves, is closer to $19 or $20 an hour for this area.
One of those analyses is MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, which pegs Monroe County’s actual living wage at $19.96 for someone who is supporting only themselves. Almost half of Indiana counties fall within the $19 to $20 per hour range for MIT’s calculated living wage.
If the living wage for 2025 increased to $20 an hour, instead of to $16.22, that would make for a 27-percent increase over the 2024 level. Applying that 27-percent increase to the CATS contract for 2024 would mean an additional $125,468 in 2025.
It is Bloomington’s board of public works that approves the contract with CATS, typically at a meeting in December for the following year.
[Serving on the city council in 2005 when the living wage ordinance was passed were: Chris Sturbaum, Jason Banach, Michael Diekhoff, Dave Rollo, David Sabbagh, Steve Volan, Chris Gaal, Andy Ruff, and Timothy Mayer. Banach and Sabbagh dissented on the vote.]
