By DAVE HAMRICK
dhamrick@TheCitizenNews.com

All Fayette County employees will get a 2/7 percent cost of living increase next year, but only 17 will get the highest possible merit increase, an additional 5 percent.

County commissioners have approved a new merit pay system that they hope will reward the best workers and give those who are less than satisfactory something to shoot for.

The group last year asked the Personnel Department to track pay increases under both the old system and the proposed new system to see how the new system might affect the county budget.

There would be almost no effect on the budget, said personnel director Connie Boehnke after tracking the figures for a year. Last year's pay increases totalled 5 percent, while this year's will be about 4.8 percent under the new system, Boehnke said.

The difference is that, while 17 employees rated “outstanding” under the new evaluation system will get a total of 7.7 percent, five rated “unsatisfactory” and 36 rated “needs improvement” will get only the 2.7 percent cost of living adjustment. An additional 113 in the “satisfactory 2” category will receive 3.95 percent, 126 workers rated “satisfactory 1” will get 5.2 percent, and 58 rated “excellent” will get 6.45 percent.

“It's a step in the right direction,” Commissioner Herb Frady said of the new evaluation system, which provides both objective and subjective criteria for supervisors to use in rating the workers.

“What we have done is restructure our pay system so that good employees get rewarded more than bad ones do,” said Commissioner Greg Dunn. Dunn called for the changes last year, complaining that, although the previous system was referred to as a “merit” system, virtually all workers received the same 5 percent merit increase.