Most St. Louis County employees will be getting a raise soon.
The St. Louis County Council voted Tuesday to authorize departments to give 2,500 county employees a 2.8 percent pay boost.
Council Chairman Sam Page, D-Creve Coeur, said the raises will cost about $4 million.
“If the departments believe that they have funds within their budget to provide the raises, then they can move forward and do that,” Page said. “If the departments don’t believe they have the funds, then they come back and ask us for a supplemental appropriation.”
About $2 million will come from what’s known as the county’s general fund, which the Creve Coeur Democrat said has been running low on surplus funds in recent weeks. The raise proposal was held last week as council members asked for more information about the status of that fund.
The legislation also comes as scores of county employees have come before the council in recent months to ask for salary increases. Voters approved a half-cent sales tax increase in 2017 which included raises for public safety employees, such as police officers.
Page described the bill the council passed on Tuesday as a small step in the wake of a bigger problem around employee pay.
“This is a very small, essentially cost-of-living adjustment based on the expenses of living in St. Louis County and how they’ve changed over the past year,” Page said. “It’s extraordinarily modest. And it really doesn’t do justice to what our county employees need or deserve for the work that they do. It’s unfortunately all we could even consider.”
A spokesperson for St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger said the Democratic official will sign the legislation, which passed without opposition.
Follow Jason Rosenbaum on Twitter: @jrosenbaum
Send questions and comments about this story to feedback@stlpublicradio.org
