County managers almost always look after county employees, and Guilford County Manager Mike Halford is no exception.
At a Thursday, Oct. 21 work session Halford explained to the Board of Commissioners that pay for Guilford County employees hadn’t kept pace over the years with the pay of comparable local governments in the state.
As a result of that discussion, the Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to give all Guilford County employees a 5 percent pay increase starting in mid-November. The increase means the employees will not get a previously scheduled 3 percent pay increase in January 2022 since this 5 percent pay increase replaces and enhances that.
The 5 percent pay increase will also apply to currently unfilled county positions.
Halford told the board, in the third-floor conference room of the county-owned BB&T Building in downtown Greensboro, that if one looks at the ratio of county employees per 1,000 residents, Guilford County employees are more “efficient” than those in 98 other North Carolina counties.
“So were’ better than 98 percent,” Halford said of county employee efficiency.
He also used Advanced Emergency Services workers as an example of county workers who have fallen far behind in equitable pay.
Halford said several neighboring counties pay emergency responders more than Guilford County even though the workload in Guilford County is greater.
Detention officers and social service caseworkers are particularly hard to hire at current pay rates, Halford said.
There are currently 313 vacancies in Guilford County government. That means there is about $14.5 million the county won’t have to spend on salaries this fiscal year, but it also means that overtime costs increase.
Last year, overtime pay cost Guilford County $6.3 million. This year, based on current trends, overtime pay is projected to cost more than $6 million again.
“So, the county is paying for things one way or another,” Halford told the board.
The new pay raise will cost the county $1.7 million in the current fiscal year and is expected to cost about $2.5 million in the next fiscal year.
The Parasitic Sector can always find plenty of reasons why the Productive Sector must be forced to give it more money.
MRDA.
When you rob Peter to pay Paul, you can always count on the support of Paul.
You saying the cops and firemen don’t earn their raise? Nice. Way to support your pubkic servants.
Yes, I am saying that. Is there ever a raise they do not “deserve”? So where does it stop? When the Parasitic Sector is completely insulated from economic reality, by virtue of the fact that they command a mechanism of universal extortion, then they invariably bestow upon themselves unending increases in their own pay packets. That’s why people who are so incompetent that they produce the worst educated children in the Western world receive an average salary over $50,000 for working 9 months a year. It’s a shakedown, and it’s obscene.
And they’re not our “public servants”, as they’re fond of calling themselves. What kind of servant forces you to be injected with a chemical cocktail against your will?
That’s not your servant, buddy – that’s your master.
There are no cops out there making you take a shot. That’s Skip and Uncle Joe at work. The cops have nothing to do with it, nor do the firemen. You are grouping all public employees into one pot, a common error for those who like to over-generalize.
Sure, I think we can all agree that raises should be merit based. However, there are times when raises should also happen due to cost of living/inflation. Periodically, the minimum wage goes up because a dollar has less value than it used to. Similarly, salaries, even those in the private sector, have to go up to keep up with cost of living increases. A COLA raise, as it’s called, is a totally separate thing from a merit, or earned, raise. It seems that this article is talking about a COLA raise to keep Guilford County employees competitive with other similar markets.
It does suck that Greensboro, and I’m sure the County has just decided to step away from merit based raises almost altogether. It will not bode well for employee performance. It’s just that this raise does not appear to have anything to do with that. Two different things.
You’re right, I am indeed grouping all Parasitic Sector employees into one pot – but there is no error. They all derive their income from taxes, which is to say they have not created wealth by providing a good or service that people willingly pay for. They derive their livelihood from forcing other people to hand over the fruits of their labor. That is a huge distinction. Worse still, as they become ever more bold, so they become ever more shameless in their greed as they award themselves ever increasing salaries and benefits – regardless of the state of their fellow Americans in the real economy.
As businesses fail and struggle, so they proclaim indignantly that their pay raises are just a COLA, or cost of living adjustment so their standard of living is not diminished. And what makes them royalty, so they don’t have to tighten their belt when everyone else must? Are they our lords and masters? Are they so precious that they must be protected and cosseted, like the Queen of England?
Stuff them. They need to realise that we pay their wages, and we do so by creating wealth, if we can. And that keeps them in the manner to which they have become accustomed.
They need to be grateful – and reminded of their place.
Well, I have to disagree. My Ex was a school teacher, and a yeller-dog Democrat. She would rush to the polling place to be there when they opened, so she could jerk that big lever on the left. I had to trudge down later and correct the wife’s vote.
Teachers teach what they are told to teach. Many choose to leave after being exposed to what they are told to do. The rest just go along – givum what they want. Direct your criticism to the party in power, and the school board. Teachers are paid for 9 month’s work, not 12. They can opt to have their check annualized if they wish.
Ah yes, the old “we were just following orders” excuse. That won’t wash.
If I were instructed to brainwash little children with neo-Marxist ideas, I would refuse point blank. And I’m not surprised that your educator wife is a Leftist. They all are. And they are failing our children miserably.
In the end your wife cannot deflect responsibility. If education isn’t the responsibility of the educators, whose responsibility is it?
And your assertion that they’re paid for less than 9 months work is true. That equates to about $68,000 per annum for working a full year like the Private Sector – which is even more obscene.
You can see why they vehemently oppose vouchers and school choice. They have themselves a coercive monopoly – and they’re doing very well out of it.
So, how many employees earned their raise? I gotta get on.
I want a government job, maybe a job on the city council. Do nothing and get a pay raise. Why should the non performers get a raise. Should be based on merit.
At least Halford is doing some positive things despite the board’s concerning direction. It doesn’t help with pay compression, but it’s something tangible.
As usual City of Greensboro behind the 8 ball. Makes that BS police salary adjustment look like the insignificant nonstarter that it really is.