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County executive Sam Page announced steps his administration is working on to improve pay for low-wage St. Louis County employees, and move toward a $15 minimum wage by 2022.
The county began the process of increasing pay for the lowest-wage workers by implementing a new minimum wage for all contracted and nonseasonal, full-time employees. Accordingly, the director of personnel will be requesting that the Civil Service Commission raise all wages to at least $13 per hour, starting as soon as practicable.
The new minimum-wage rate is scheduled to reach $15 per hour by 2022, with incremental changes each year, until then. An incremental approach allows the county to identify other cost savings that can be implemented to offset the increased out-of-pocket cost of a higher minimum wage.
“St. Louis County employees remain the strongest asset we have as we work toward better government,” Page said. “As part of my promise to make government work better for everyone, it is my duty to ensure that the people we rely on every day are compensated fairly for their work.”
Employee salaries that are not considered part of the low-wage category are also being evaluated.
County directors will convene a working group to clarify which county employees have not received raises in recent years from proceeds of Proposition P or other sources. They will be tasked to define a fair and just raise for each category of employees who have not received more than the nominal raise, identify the immediate and long-term financial costs associated with those raises, and propose possible funding mechanisms that would make them affordable.
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