Employees of Jasper County will soon be working under new pay plans. At their meeting Tuesday, the Jasper County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a change from an 8-step to a 5-step plan for the six employee classifications. County Board Chairman Brandon Talsma says the switch comes after months of work from a special wage committee, which was formed to create a pay plan that achieves certain goals. 

“It does allow us to bump starting wages on some of the positions that we were under par with compared to similar counties. It also speeds up the process for new employees getting to the top of the scale, so they don’t have to take eight to ten years to get to the top of the scale. The pay raises between steps are considerably higher.”

Talsma acknowledged the new pay plans do not achieve everything he was hoping for, but meet several goals. Jasper County Human Resources Director Dennis Simon says the two unions representing Jasper County workers, Local 2840 of AFSCME Iowa Council 61 and Local 2003 of the Public, Professional, and Maintenance Employees Union, are in agreement with the change. The new pay plans takes effect Saturday, August 23rd and run through June 30th of next year.