Wausau’s HR Committee Met to Discuss Equal Pay for City Employees

Tuesday, January 9th, 2024 -- 8:06 AM

(Thomas Schumacher, WSAU) Wausau’s HR Committee met on Monday night to discuss the possibility of unrepresented employees being on the same pay rate as utility employees.

According to Thomas Schumacher with WSAU, the committee spent a large part of the discussion talking about wanting to find “equity’ and “equality” when it comes to pay rates but was not able to agree on what data from the studies provided by Gallagher or Baker/Tilly is accurate enough to base their decisions on.

The committee voted after the lengthy discussion to continue studying the pay rate to find “equity” for all employees, including those in utilities. A joint meeting will be held at a future date to discuss the findings once they have been thoroughly studied.

Wausau HR Director James Henderson took issue with the current studies and with claims from members that city officials are underpaid, saying, “We keep using the staffing assessment and the compensation study interchangeably, and they’re not."

"The compensation study looked at 16 cities because, statistically, four cities are not large enough to have a correct compensation study, especially when those four cities looked like they were hand-picked. Those are not comparable to Wausau, and I contacted some of the cities like Oshkosh, Appleton, and Fond Du Lac, and we were right there with those communities.”

Director Harrison also addressed claims that the city is struggling to retain talent due to pay and pointed toward data that Wausau lost just seven people from water and sewer last year and said none of them listed pay as the reason for their departure.

He further noted that other cities require water operators to have a lot more experience before being hired compared to Wausau and that Wausau is still not far behind when it comes to pay rates.

The pay rate increase would need to be paid for through the city’s water rate, which saw a 65% increase last year alone, and Wausau Mayor Katie Rosenberg had previously stated that she would rather “set herself on fire” than increase rates further.

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