‘Across the board means everybody’
By April Baumgarten
When Mercer County commissioners said they wanted raises across the board, they meant it.
“I felt that that raise was across the board,” Commissioner Bill Tveit said. “Everybody gets that. It is a cost-of-living incentive. It was a correction as we saw it as a board. By holding it back from one person or another because of a six month deal isn’t correct.”
The commission approved a 10-percent for all employees except themselves during budget hearings in 2013. Tveit said Jan. 15 that some departments were holding back those raises for newly hired employees on probation. That probation period last for six months.
The wage increase is in response to increased competition in pay in the state. The county has had to compete with high wages in western North Dakota due to an oil boom. Living expenses have also increase in the area and the raise was meant to subsidize the spike in costs. Other commissioners agreed.
