Jan. 13—CUMBERLAND, Md. — Allegany County officials said Thursday they are considering implementation of a new salary scale which could result in higher pay for many of its roughly 530 employees.

The Allegany County Board of Commissioners had commissioned a salary study from Evergreen Solutions of Tallahassee, Florida. The commissioners were presented with the findings during a work session at the county office complex.

The study included a review of current salary grades, according to Mark Holcombe of Evergreen Solutions, as well as an employee survey to collect their input. The study also included gathering pay and benefits data from 21 governmental agencies across Maryland and in neighboring Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia to use as a comparison.

"You want to see how your compensation compares internally and externally," said Holcombe. "Your people, who are performing tasks and duties here, are they making the same thing here that they would make somewhere else?"

The study said county salaries were below market, however that was seen more at the lower end of the pay classifications.

"In honesty, a lot of employees at the lower end of our pay scale are quite frankly struggling right now," said Jason Bennett, county administrator. "The cost of everything is through the roof. We've had some COLAs (cost of living adjustments) but I'm not sure it's kept up with inflation."

Holcombe said employees in the internal survey gave county benefits positive remarks.

"They ranked them number one as a benefit they would tell someone who was considering working here," said Holcombe. "Benefits are important to people. But, some said, 'I don't think my pay is competitive and I'm below the market. The starting pay is low.' They said new hires were coming in above them. There was a little bit of that."

The study showed that the spread between the current pay scales averaged 10%.

"We are recommending adding 25 unique pay ranges, which is a few more than you have right now. We would like to see a midpoint progression of around 7.5%," said Holcombe.

Bennett offered an example of where the county was losing employees. "We had 30 vacancies at our detention center this year," he said. "We lose people left and right. We'll get someone hired and trained and we lose them. It's a revolving door."

Bennett said once trained in corrections, employees take jobs at any number of the state and federal prisons in the area. "They can make more dollars right away. So it's definitely a problem we are seeing," he said.

Kristi Liller, director of human resources, said the problem impacts many departments.

"We have people going to Walmart or Sheetz and make almost the same amount of money, or the same amount of money with less responsibility," she said.

The county kept salaries steady for years during lean financial times, according to Bennett. However, he said now is a good time to consider increases because the county is projected to have good financial health for the next couple years.

The study said raising salary levels could increase the annual budget by $2.4 million. Bennett suggested offering retirement incentives to offset some of the cost.

"We could identify staff members who are eligible to retire," said Bennett. "I'm not saying they will go, but we think we can sort of thin the ranks with new employees, which is a bit cheaper. So with your blessing we could offer something like that to mitigate the cost."

The county does have numerous union employees. Lee Beeman, county attorney, recommended looking at the union contracts to see if the pay scales would indicate a need for any contract reopeners.

"The county needs to show the way ... that you should want to work for the county," said Commissioner Bill Atkinson. "It should be some of the better jobs in the area. We don't want to keep losing people. We want them to stay for 20 or 30 years."

The commissioners agreed to review the study and consider formal action at their next public meeting on Jan. 26.

Greg Larry is a reporter at the Cumberland Times-News. To reach him, call 304-639-4951, email glarry@times-news.com and follow him on Twitter @GregLarryCTN.