Shoshone County contractor pulls out of wage study
Shoshone County Commissioners Jeff Zimmerman, Dave Dose, and Tracy Casady discuss their options for a wage study after it was announced that the study they had approved in June would not be completed.
JOSH McDONALD
WALLACE –– It’s back to square one for Shoshone County and their eagerly anticipated wage study.
Last week, Shoshone County Commissioner Tracy Casady was informed by third-party administration firm AmeriBen that they wouldn’t have Shoshone County’s wage study completed by their Sept. 30 deadline. The company said they were doing away with the human resources consulting sector of their business.
“We have to start over,” Casady said.
While the setback may be disheartening for the county officials, they remained steadfast in acknowledging their desire to see the study completed.
AmeriBen was awarded the contract to complete the study in June of this year, beating out several companies based on cost and convenience.
“It was hard to find anyone to begin with that did not want you to purchase their software,” Casady said.
AmeriBen had submitted a $26,000 bid but told the commissioners that the price could go down by almost 50% if the county could complete some of the information gathering in-house. According to Casady, the county did receive other bids for the project, but those companies asked that the county spend upwards of $2,000 per month on software that had to be downloaded onto the county’s computer system.
The study is needed in order to make changes to the county’s various pay scales and the disparity among them. The desired study will consider base wages, each position’s scope of responsibility, employee skill levels, working conditions, benefits, and longevity.
The board will, once again, begin the process of gathering bids to complete their wage study.