City proposes $175,000 in raises for part-time, non-union staff

Some part-time and student employees at the City of Sault Ste. Marie are expected to get a welcome increase in their buying power next week.

The pay increase has nothing to do with cost of living, or city council's decision last month to look for ways to make sure all city workers get competitive compensation.

This raise results from a kind of domino effect from October's increase in the minimum wage to $16.55.

"Consequently, the entry-level pay rate on the part-time and student wage grid... had to increase to meet the government’s new required minimum," says Nicole Ottolino, the city's director of human resources.

"The result was a compressed wage grid effectively flattening Job Classes 1 to 3, and narrowing the gap between the remaining job classes," Ottolino says.

On Tuesday, Ottolino will ask city councillors to restore the previous increment between classes. 

"Wage compression occurs when the pay of one or more employees in a lower job band is very close to the pay of more experienced employees in the same job, or of those in higher level jobs, including supervisory positions," she warned in a January report to Mayor Shoemaker and councillors.

"This can result in inequity within the corporate pay grids, which can lead to employee disengagement and retention issues, particularly for positions directly senior to the position(s) who received the larger wage increase. Implementation of the living wage would exacerbate current wage compression issue with student and part-time wage grids, as well as begin to impact unionized and non-union full-time positions," she said.

She's proposing to maintain entry-level positions at minimum wage, while restoring the same increment between job classes as the previous wage grid for non-union and part-time employees.

"Addressing the compression issue with the part-time and student wage grids will alleviate some complaints from current part-time employees, assist with the approaching summer student recruitment process and the retention of both groups."

Ottolino estimates the changes will cost the city $175,000, which she says was foreseen and allowed for in the approved 2024 city budget.

If approved on Tuesday, the pay hike will take effect in the next pay period.

Most affected employees will get raises in the dollar-an-hour range.

Next week's council meeting will be held on Tuesday because of the Family Day holiday on Monday.

SooToday's livestreamed coverage will start at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday with a special session at which Dr. Chelene Christine Hanes and David Orazietti will be presented with the 2023 Medal of Merit.