FARMINGTON — Town employees can expect a pay cut in 2010, Town Manager Richard Davis said Tuesday, because the national rate of inflation is down, which is what the town uses to adjust wages.
An employee earning $45,000 a year would lose just over
$300 next year, he said. An employee earning $17 per hour is
looking at an 11- to 12-cent loss per hour.
Last year, employees received a 4.8 percent pay raise.
Selectmen on Tuesday approved following the town’s policy of adjusting wages based on the U.S. Consumer Price Index, the key measure of inflation. The vote was 3-1 with one abstention. The rate was minus .086 for Oct. 1, 2008, to Sept. 30, 2009.
Selectman Jon Bubier moved that the board accept the adjustment for 2010, but Selectman Nancy Porter raised concerns about taking away income.
“You can’t take away what people already have,” she said.
“I don’t want to take away, but no one complained when they got more last year,” he said. “The business sector has all had to pull back . . . there’s been a lot of sacrifice in the last year. I can’t see straying from the policy. It sounds harsh but it’s the right thing to do.”
Some employees felt guilty last year, “including myself,” for the increase, but the town expected this could happen this year, Davis said. He recommended the board continue with the policy, which was established in the 1990s.
There’s been little fluctuation in the index figures over the past few years up to June of last year, he said. Expecting a typical recession of 18 months, figures are starting to come back up, he said.
He raised concern over the potential for higher costs for health insurance for town employees and said he expects figures within the next few weeks.
“At some point we’ll start losing,” Davis said, reminding the board that several department heads are now in their 50s. At some point, there’ll be a “tsunami” of retirements.
Without a good benefit package in place, it could be hard to replace good experienced, qualified people, which would be detrimental to the town, he said.
“All town employees have this pay decrease, but at some point there’s the straw that broke the camel’s back,” he said.
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