Wasatch County officials received a salary increase via resolution during the council’s July 5 meeting in a move slated to have a financial impact of $191,573.46 in 2023.
“I wanted to go through the methodology of how we arrived at the numbers that we did,” Wasatch County Manager Justin Grabau said before explaining the process.
The county’s wage study — which it contracted with McGrath Human Resources Group to complete — incorporated data from counties throughout Utah with populations between 20,000 and 750,000 people. What it found was that the average salary for the assessors, recorders, treasurers, surveyors, clerks and auditors in those counties sits at $120,775.
“Rather than have different compensation amounts, what we decided to do was to pick a number based on a survey of other counties to establish a base level,” Grabau said.
This means the salaries of the assessor, clerk/auditor, recorder, surveyor and treasurer were all raised to $120,775.20.
It was determined that since sheriffs and attorneys generally make a higher salary than those positions, they would be raised 130% and 145% of the proposed base, respectively. The sheriff’s salary was raised to $157,007.50, and the county attorney’s to $175,123.78.
Council members’ salaries were raised to 33% of the base amount, or $39,855.66, with the council chair receiving $2,000 more.
“Normally we adopt this resolution through our annual budgeting process, but because we’re doing a midyear implementation of our wage study, this is a part of that implementation,” Grabau said.
The resolution raised Grabau’s salary to $201,739.20. Mike Davis, the county’s MIDA coordinator, received an increase bringing his salary to $194,979.20.
According to the meeting’s information packet, these figures were recommended “based on the market analysis performed by the consultant.”
Before the changes, which will be prorated through the second half of 2023, the assessor, recorder, treasurer, surveyor and clerk/auditor all received a salary of $89,876. The county attorney’s salary was $134,830 and the sheriff’s $121,954.
Grabau’s previous salary was $157,290 and Davis’s was $190,985.
“The county manager and MIDA coordinator compensation were based on the study’s recommendations,” Grabau explained to The Park Record. “The elected officials’ compensation was made primarily from comparing those other counties.”
Grabau also clarified the reason for including counties significantly larger than Wasatch County in the study.
“Everybody’s got the same amount of hours in the year,” he said. “While duties might be different, the reason why we included the counties that we did is we wanted to make sure we are being competitive.”
While the county regularly makes cost-of-living adjustments and periodic market checks of its staff members’ salaries, Grabau said these raises were likely “more dramatic” given they incorporated independent analysis from the contracted McGrath study.
In the future, Grabau said at the meeting, county officials are hoping they can adjust the base salary — $120,775 — and follow their percentage scale to determine elected officials’ salaries.