Last October, when the Select Board unanimously adopted a new wage scale for the town’s part-time hourly employees, the effect of that vote seemed clear.
According to Anthony Butterfield, chairman of the Personnel Board, in his memo recommending the new scale, it would increase hourly rates by 2 percent for all part-time employees, with an additional increase for the lowest paid positions to bring them to $12 per hour. It seemed obvious that, in the coming year, workers would be paid a little more than before.
The intent seemed equally clear. The memo advocated the 2 percent increase across the wage scale “because that is what was offered to other employee groups at the beginning of FY 19.”
Bringing the lowest steps to $12 matched the new state minimum wage effective on Jan. 1. Butterfield wrote, “Although municipalities are not required to follow the minimum wage law, it has always been our intent and desire to provide it, or better. This is in keeping with the policy of having the town of Amherst be an employer of choice in western Massachusetts.”
Finally, the memo recommended that department heads “budget for and provide step increases for those part time hourly employees eligible to receive them. We anticipate that we can avoid some of the compression we have had in the past between existing and veteran part time employees by providing an annual COLA and step increases.”
This addressed the fact that, for any given part-time position, there is a series of pay rates (“steps”) that are applied based on the employee’s years of experience. Employees move up a step each year until they reach the top level for their position. The new scale increased each of those rates by 2 percent to keep earnings in line with rising wages statewide and the relationship between the rates constant.
Given all this, the email part-time Jones Library employees received from Library Director Sharon Sharry on Jan. 2 came as a shock. While announcing the increased hourly rates, the email simultaneously informed employees, without explanation, that their next step increase would not occur until January 2020, six months later than normal. The impact of this is dramatic. For employees who were anticipating a step increase of 5 percent in July, the cost of this delay is greater than the entire annual value of the 2 percent raise. They will actually earn less in 2019 now than they would have under the old scale.
Library employees took their concerns to the Personnel Board and the board has created a subcommittee to look into the situation. However, this is a serious problem made urgent by the need for the town manager to submit a budget to Town Council by the end of this month.
The library trustees, town manager, and council should all work to ensure these important employees get their regularly scheduled step increases or have their wages otherwise adjusted, not just to prevent the loss of anticipated income, but to deliver the real increase that was promised last October.
Town leaders and library trustees need to work together and avoid letting their complicated overlapping responsibilities delay action, as has often happened in the past. They also need to hold the library director accountable, and challenge her approach of denying the problem, as most recently displayed in her comments in the Bulletin’s April 5 Around Amherst column.
Most appalling was the fact that Sharry chose to speak publicly about an employee, by name, including specifics about that individual’s pay. Not only is this highly unprofessional, but it smacks of intimidation and reprisal. The library trustees should, at a minimum, require her to make a formal apology.
Sharry either does not understand the implications of the new wage scale for her employees, or is deliberately obfuscating. Neither is acceptable. Discussing the rise in the top rate misses the point. So does calling attention to a simple net change in an employee’s wages year to year, since the concern is the way the delay in step increases reduces the previously anticipated raise.
The problem is clear: although the wage scale was increased by 2 percent across the board at the start of the year, the extra income that this would have provided will get yanked back starting in July, when employees don’t get their previously scheduled step increase. The purpose of the 2 percent raise was to keep all pay rates in line with rising minimum wage. Delaying or canceling step increases designed to reward commitment and longevity completely undermines this goal.
It appears the library director is delaying step increases to recoup the cost of keeping up with rising minimum wage — robbing Peter to pay Paul when both are underpaid. I hope this is not also the intent of the library trustees or the town manager. We will find out soon.
Jim Oldham served as a Town Meeting member from Precinct 5 between 2002 and 2018. He has written a monthly column for the Bulletin since 2007.