The City Council on Wednesday approved a pay raise for all Lake Charles city employees. City officials had been ironing out the details of the raise for months, with the final piece of the process centered on the recently completed salary survey.

“I think we all recognize that not only does the pay survey reflect that our city employees are making less than employees similarly situated in other communities around the state, but we also understand the need for us to improve that pay plan to be competitive in the area that we live in,” Mayor Randy Roach said.

Now, the starting pay for career service employees, the non-civil service jobs, will increase from $8.25 per hour to $8.80. With full-time employees receiving a 2 percent across-the-board increase in addition to the 2 percent longevity pay increase included in the current budget, most of the city’s employees will get a total pay increase of 4 percent.

Councilman Mark Eckard led the conversation about amending the pay proposal. Based on his recommendations, which focused on the supplemental pay for new fire and police recruits, firefighters will begin receiving $200 per month, or $2,400 per year, in supplemental pay if approved by the city’s legal department. Police will receive an additional $50 in supplemental pay, which will be added to the $150 they now receive. An additional $45,000 will also be used to adjust the pay for the city’s non-career workers, per Eckard’s amendment.

Councilwoman Mary Morris pointed out the discrepancies in the pay scale improvements between the police and fire departments. She mentioned how the entry-level pay in the Fire Department was $2,063, or 7.3 percent, below average, according to the salary survey, and that the Police Department’s salary gap was far more narrow. The approved amendments addressed a number of Morris’ concerns.

The pay increase will cost $1.8 million, including the 2 percent longevity increase of $570,000 in the 2015 fiscal year budget. The amended plan will take effect Jan. 1.

For city officials, the raise is just temporary relief for an issue that requires a long-term solution. The conversation for finding a substantial revenue source to fund the raises began earlier this year with the city planning to put a quarter-cent sales tax proposal on the November ballot. State legislative changes forced the city to postpone the election until October 2015. City officials hope the tax will be a reliable funding source for pay improvements down the road.(MGNonline)