County $15 Living Wage?

Meeting tonight at 5:30, Room 251 City-County Building. Personnel and Finance Committee. Item D 12.

Organizers are looking for folks to:
1. register in support of the proposal and/or
2. speak in support of the proposal.

As of December 30th, the word is that “At this time committee members remain either undecided or opposed.”

Dane County living wage is $11.66 for 2016. From the fiscal note, this is what the proposal would do:

Brief Description of Proposal:
The ordinance amendment defines the living wage as 129 percent of the poverty level divided by 2080. It would go
in to effect January 1, 2016, and would apply to county employees and purchase of services contracts, but human
services department purchase of services providers would be excluded.

Current Policy or Practice:
The current living wage is 100 percent of the poverty level. This amendment increases the amount the county and
its contractors must pay to employees, except for DHS purchase of service contract employees.

Impact of Adopting Proposal:
The OA will affect the amount the county pays some of its own employees beginning in 2016, and may affect the cost of contracts next year. It will not go into effect until 2016, so there is no fiscal impact for the 2015 budget. Almost all regulat county employees make at least $15 per hour, however LTE employees do not. The fiscal impact will be to bring LTEs up to $15 per hour. Contracts for certain services may also increase if the cost is passed on.

The fiscal estimate notes that there is no fiscal effect, no budget effect.

Narrative/Assumptions about long range fiscal effect:
While there will be no fiscal effect in 2015, there will be increased cost in 2016 and thereafter to bring LTE employees up to $15 per hour. Analysis of payroll data indicates that the cost to pay all LTE employees $15 per hour would be $193,000. Contracts for certain services, such as pest control, laundry, or mowing – for example – may increase upon renewal or rebidding of contracts as organizations pass the cost of the increased living wage to the county.

The language of the ordinance is simple:

ARTICLE 2. Section 25.015(1)(f) is amended to read as follows:
(f) Living wage means an hourly wage equal to 100 129% of the poverty level divided by 2080.
1.The 129% living wage shall first take effect January 1, 2000 2016 except that it the 100% living wage
shall be continue in effect as of January 1, 1999 for human services department purchase-of-service providers covered by this ordinance until the county receives relief from the state levy limits under Wis. Stats s. 66.0602 either by statutory amendment or levy cap referendum.

[EXPLANATION: This amendment increases the living wage to 129% of the poverty level and exempts human services department purchase of service contracts.]

Be sure to thank the sponsors:
JOHN HENDRICK, JERRY BOLLIG, CARL CHENOWETH, MARY KOLAR, AL MATANO, MAUREEN McCARVILLE, JEFF PERTL, KYLE RICHMOND, MICHELE RITT, MATT VELDRAN, HEIDI WEGLEITNER, NICK ZWEIFEL, DAVE de FELICE, LELAND PAN

And urge the others to support it. Current members of the Personnel and Finance Committee that are not sponsors include:
Chuck Erickson
Cynda Solberg
Dennis O’Loughlin
George Gillis
Sharon Corrigan
Sheila Stubbs

erickson.chuck@countyofdane.com
solberg.cynda@countyofdane.com
oloughlin@countyodane.com
gillis.george@countyofdane.com
corrigan@countyofdane.com
stubbs@countyofdane.com

Supporters on the committee are:
John Hendrick
Mary Kolar and
Jeff Pertl

hendrick@countyofdane.com
kolar.mary@countyofdane.com
pertl.jeff@countyofdane.com

As always, you can contact all 37 members of the county board with one email to:
county_board_recipients@countyofdane.com

This was anticipated to be on the agenda for Thursday’s county board meeting, but it is currently not on there.