From left, Bethany Hallam, county councilwoman at-large, Patrick Catena, president of Allegheny County Council, and Paul Klein, councilman for District 11, sit at the council dais and discuss a proposed raise in wages for county workers during council’s regular meeting on Tuesday, June 6, 2023, at the Allegheny County Courthouse, Downtown. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource)
County Executive Rich Fitzgerald has opposed legislation to raise pay for county employees to at least $20 per hour, saying it would be too expensive. Proponents say county employees should not have to subsidize the county budget by forgoing a raise.
by Charlie Wolfson, PublicSource
An Allegheny County Council bill could raise the pay of hundreds of county employees, eventually increasing the minimum pay for its workers to $20 per hour and lifting compensation for nursing assistants, clerks, child services caseworkers and others. But County Executive Rich Fitzgerald could veto the pay hike due to its cost.
More than a fifth of Allegheny County’s 5,600 full-time employees made less than $20 per hour (or the equivalent $41,600 salary) in 2022, according to county payroll data, which PublicSource reviews and details annually. That group, 1,175 individuals in 2022, includes a higher proportion of women and people of color than the county’s workforce overall. And those workers who earned less than $20 per hour left their jobs at a higher rate than other county workers last year while key agencies struggled to retain and hire staff.
The bill would gradually raise minimum pay, only for county employees, to $20 per hour by 2026. The statewide minimum wage is $7.25. Whether the county threshold will become law is not yet clear. Council could overcome a Fitzgerald veto with a supermajority vote and, barring that, a new executive is coming in January who could champion the measure.
Fitzgerald’s spokesperson declined to comment on the executive’s plans for the legislation last week.
“If [Fitzgerald] wants to go down swinging against county employees, that is a path that he can choose to take,” said the bill’s sponsor, Councilwoman Bethany Hallam, a frequent foil of Fitzgerald. “We’re prepared to override a veto. … These are people who are struggling as it is. We need to give them an opportunity to focus on these important jobs without needing a second job or a gig job.”
Turnover: high in low-wage service jobs
Turnover is a constant in county government, but last year more people left county jobs (844) than were hired (698). Those who left had a median salary of about $47,500, which was about $5,200 less than the county’s overall median salary last year.
Roughly 20% of county workers who earned less than the proposed $41,600 floor left their jobs last year, compared to just 13% of county workers who earned more.
A total of 142 people left jobs at the county-run Kane assisted living homes last year, compared to just 31 hires during that time. The Allegheny County Department of Human Services [ACDHS] saw 155 departures and 57 new hires.
Last year began with 276 caseworkers in ACDHS’ Division of Children, Youth and Families [CYF]. Sixty-four of them left and 12 were added. And that division had as many as 100 vacancies in September, according to a WESA report. Twenty of those who left in 2022 earned less than $41,600 per year.
County spokesperson Amie Downs said increased turnover at the Kane Centers is in line with industry-wide difficulties since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that turnover among CYF caseworkers was up in 2021 and 2022 but has been a net positive so far in 2023.
Brian Englert, who leads the union representing county jail correctional officers, said at Tuesday’s council meeting that raising wages could help fill dozens of medical staff vacancies at the jail. “I sit at a jail that struggles every day to have medical assistance to clear people at the door to be brought into the jail,” Englert said, referencing a posted $17.15 hourly rate for medical assistants. “We’re not getting anybody at that rate because they can get more at the hospital.”
Disparities: least male, least white departments paid less
Raising minimum pay for county workers would disproportionately impact women and Black employees, many of whom work as nursing assistants in the county’s nursing homes, assistants in ACDHS and the Public Defender’s office, and administrative workers who keep the gears of government turning in areas ranging from elections to property assessments.
Staffing at the Kane Centers and within ACDHS stood out from other departments in three ways: Women were large majorities, Black employees made up more than one-quarter of their rosters, and they were most reliant on workers earning less than $20 an hour.
“I would just like to remind council that if … we want people to have a fair shot at being able to live in this county and not put that burden on the backs of Black women, then we should be voting in favor of this,” said Councilwoman Liv Bennett, the only Black woman on council, during Tuesday’s discussion of the wage increase.