03-13-2024 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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STAFF REPORT TO:Mayor Fischer and Members of the City Council FROM:Heidi Heller, City Clerk/HR Manager DATE:March 13, 2024 RE:Update Seasonal Workers and Building Aide Wage Scale ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED Approve an updated wage scale for Public Works/Parks summer seasonal employees, winter rink workers and building aides. BACKGROUND Every year the city hires workers in the summer to help in the Public Works and Parks departments, winter rink workers to flood the rinks and work in the warming house, and a few building aides throughout the year to be present during city sponsored programs at non-city owned facilities. All of these positions are paid the same hourly rate. Over the last few years it has become increasingly difficult to hire for these positions, and pay is one of the main issues. Cities have had to increase wages in order to attract employees to these positions, particularly the summer jobs as every city hires these workers, and it is easy for them to simply go to another city that pays better. The current wages in Little Canada for all seasonals and building aides is $14.00 – 16.50 per hour. Past practice has been that new employees start at Year 1 and receive an increase each year they return. Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5+ $14.00 $15.00 $15.50 $16.00 $16.50 The scale was increased by $2.00/hour in 2022 in order to be more competitive after hiring started becoming more difficult, and the scale has not been increased since. These temporary positions are not included in the annual cost of living pay increase since these wages are based on comparisons to what other cities are paying and typically do not need to be adjusted every year. The wages were reviewed in 2023 and remained competitive, but this year so many cities significantly raised their rates. After staff recently reviewed what other metro cities are paying summer workers and saw that Little Canada is no longer at a competitive rate, staff is recommending a $3.00 per hour increase for all steps of the wage scale. BUDGET IMPACT Due to the warm winter and the ice rinks only being open for a very short time, not much of the winter seasonal worker budget was used, so that can be used to help offset the increased wages. Staff tracks the seasonal worker budgets throughout the winter and summer and ends the seasonals work once that budgeted amount is reached. RECOMMENDATION Approve the updated wage scale for Public Works/Parks summer seasonal employees, winter rink workers and building aides.