Tag: consumer price index

Analysis: Bloomington’s living wage to hit $16.22 an hour in 2025, but work like video services is left out

This image was created by DALL-E, an AI image generator developed by OpenAI.

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?

Continue reading “Analysis: Bloomington’s living wage to hit $16.22 an hour in 2025, but work like video services is left out” →

Thoughts turn to employee pay raises as 2025 budget season approaches for Monroe County, Bloomington

Next Monday, Aug. 26, marks the first day of class for Indiana University’s Bloomington campus.

It’s also the opening day of budget season for Bloomington’s city council. That’s when Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson is expected to present her draft 2025 budget proposal to the council, which is the city’s fiscal body. Monday’s draft budget presentation starts at 5:30 p.m.

The rough equivalent for the start of Monroe County government’s budget season is a budget preview to be presented to the county council by its own administrator. The county’s budget preview is tentatively set for 5 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 29.

As they watch the deliberations, among other questions, employees of both organizations will have their eye on this one: What kind of increase in compensation will they see next year? Continue reading “Thoughts turn to employee pay raises as 2025 budget season approaches for Monroe County, Bloomington” →

2024 budget notebook: Monroe County council looks to do more for lower-paid workers

Monroe County council on Oct. 3, 2023 clockwise from left: Cheryl Munson, Marty Hawk, Geoff McKim, Kate Wiltz, Jennifer Crossley, Peter Iversen, and Trent Deckard.

At its work session on Tuesday night, the Monroe County council took up some leftover issues from its deliberations on the 2024 budget—salaries towards the upper end of the scale,  as well as those at the lower end.

Towards the higher end of county compensation, though not at the very top of the scale, are the salaries for elected officials like auditor, assessor, clerk, coroner, commissioners, county councilors, recorder, surveyor, and treasurer.

The county council settled on increasing the salaries of elected officials by 8.5 percent, compared to 2023. That’s the same percentage increase that other county workers will receive.

The council also agreed on Tuesday that for some jobs on the lower end of the county’s salary grid, they would increase the pay by 55 cents an hour—on top of the 8.5 percent increase that other employees will receive. Those lower-paid jobs are classified as COMOT (computer, office machine operation, technician) in the county’s salary grid. Continue reading “2024 budget notebook: Monroe County council looks to do more for lower-paid workers” →

Monroe County pay raises: Final discussions appear mostly done, but not for elected official salaries

About four hours into a meeting last Tuesday, Monroe County council president Kate Wiltz was looking to wrap up a topic that was leftover from discussions of the 2024 budget—pay increases for elected officials.

The elected positions under discussion are: auditor, assessor, clerk, coroner, commissioners, county councilors, recorder, surveyor, and treasurer.

Wiltz announced, “I would entertain a motion on what we should do with elected officials and their chief deputies, with respect to 2024.”

In the Nat U. Hill room of the Monroe County courthouse, where the county council meets, Wiltz’s invitation was met with about 20 seconds of silence.

“All right. Wow. We have to do something,” Wiltz said.

But on Tuesday, the council left open the question of pay increases for elected officials in 2024. The topic of pay for elected officials will be taken up on the night of the county’s budget hearing, which is set for  Oct. 3 at 5:30 p.m.

If the county council decides to treat elected officials like all other employees, they’ll get an 8.5-percent raise.

Even though the county council did not reach a consensus on pay increases for electeds, they did settle on an approach for some other employee categories that, until Tuesday, had been open questions. Continue reading “Monroe County pay raises: Final discussions appear mostly done, but not for elected official salaries” →

Bloomington’s municipal workers turn out for city council meeting, labor negotiations continue

From left, Bloomington city councilmembers: Sue Sgambelluri, Susan Sandberg, Dave Rollo, Matt Flaherty, Ron Smith and Isabel Piedmont-Smith.
AFSCME member Stephen French.
AFSCME members who attended the Aug. 3, 2022 meeting of the city council.
AFSCME member Steven Robertson.
AFSCME Local 2487 president Bradley Rushton.
Councilmember Dave Rollo (right) speaks with AFSCME members after the Bloomington city council’s Aug. 4, 2022 meeting.
About two dozen AFSCME members attended the Bloomington city council’s Aug. 4, 2022 meeting.

A couple dozen members of the AFSCME Local 2487 attended Bloomington’s Wednesday city council meeting, to highlight for councilmembers their ongoing collective bargaining negotiations with mayor John Hamilton’s administration—without getting into details of those talks.

As Local 2487 president Bradley Rushton put it, “I cannot discuss any aspect of the current state of affairs between the union and the city reps.”

But union members are looking for better compensation than their current four-year contract gives them.  The current labor agreement runs through the end of 2022.

The acronym for the union name stands for American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The union includes workers in utilities, the street and fleet divisions of public works, parks and recreation, sanitation, and the animal shelter, among others. Rushton serves the city as a fleet maintenance master technician.

Rushton led off his remarks during public commentary with a word of thanks to the city council for supporting the police union in their efforts to negotiate better compensation. In September last year, the city council  passed a resolution supporting more money for police officers.

The police union is on the same four-year contractual cycle as the AFSCME workers. Earlier this year, in mid-May, the city council approved a contract with police officers that started with a 13-percent increase in the first year.

The city’s administration had made the police contract contingent on the council’s approval of an increase to the local income tax, which the council gave in early May.

Rushton told the city council that fair compensation has to address the rate of inflation. Continue reading “Bloomington’s municipal workers turn out for city council meeting, labor negotiations continue” →