Municipal Employee Salaries Now on Pay-for-Performance Schedule

Muskego municipal employees who are not represented by a union will receive merit increases under a new plan approved by the Common Council in January. Forty employees across a number of departments including city finance, police, library, and parks are affected by this change.

Presented by Mayor Johnson as a way to attract and retain top talent who choose to work in the public sector, the plan adjusts current pay to fall more in line with the fair market value of like positions in the private sector.

"This is an employer's market right now, but it won't always be that way," Johnson noted. "We need to keep our good employees so that when the economy improves, we're not in a bind."

Employees who achieve a certain level of performance at their annual review are now eligible to receive up to a 2.2 percent wage increase. This is in addition to, not a replacement of, the cost-of-living wage adjustment city employees receive every year.

The mayor also proposed bonuses for a handful of employees who have reached the top of their payscale and who may not be eligible for salary increases under the merit-based plan.

To pay for bonuses and the annual merit increases, Johnson outlined three proposals: use the 2010 budget surplus to fund the 2011 merit increases; do nothing until 2012 and work the increases into the budget; or wait and see if funds become available in 2011.

Alderman Noah Fiedler supported using the 2010 budget surplus and then building the program into department salary budgets for 2012.

"I don't normally go for this sort of thing," he said. "But I cannot think of a better reason to use our budget surplus than to show our employees - and our residents - that their service and the services they provide are valued."

Alderman Dan Soltysiak agreed that employees need to be fairly compensated, but he didn't like what he described as "creative accounting."

"We say we're going to do this one time, but that turns into two times," he said. "And we don't know if we're going to have extra money in 2011."

Johnson pointed out there could be money in an arbitration fund from police union and health insurance negotiations and purchase, respectively, to use for the 2011 increases if necessary. The council has until the middle of March to amend the city's 2010 budget to account for the merit increases.

The "Employee Pay-for-Performance Progression Program" was approved after Mayor Johnson cast the deciding vote when the council tied at 3-3.