Gwinnett employees would get a 4 percent raise under a proposed budget released Tuesday.
While salaries increased by 3 percent last year to adjust for an improving job market and more competition for workers, employees last received a pay raise in 2009. The increase, if approved in January, would restore a guaranteed 4 percent step increase for sworn officers in the police department, fire department, sheriff’s department and corrections. All other employees would receive a 4 percent raise if their work was considered satisfactory at an annual review.
The pay increase is intended to improve morale and reduce attrition. Maria Woods, the county’s chief financial officer, said the pay increase would cost about $7.3 million in 2015.
Commission Chairman Charlotte Nash said the raises would not undo the stagnation county employees have faced in their salaries, but would have an impact on workers.
“It’s a movement in the right direction,” she said. “We can’t unwind all the things that happened over the last six years all at once.”
Nash presented her proposed budget to county commissioners Tuesday. In addition to raises, she recommended opening a new fire station and relocating an existing one; adding various court personnel; putting money back into the county’s road sweeping and mowing programs; and expanding transit service.
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