Clark County employees would receive a 3 percent raise retroactive to last summer, a 4 percent pay raise in July, followed by 3 percent boosts in each of the two following years under a labor agreement to be considered by county commissioners next week.
Municipal workers represented by Service Employees International Union Local 1107 signed off on the cost-of-living increases in a Feb. 21 vote.
Advertisement
If the commission approves it Tuesday, the four-year contract will take effect March 6.
Separately, county workers are eligible for merit increases in their compensation.
The thousands of county workers represented by SEIU saw their prior labor agreement expire last summer as heated negotiations stretched beyond the period covered by their contract.
However, the proposed pay hikes would affect other county employees not covered by the union, such as managers. This matching of salary hikes has been routine at the county.
For the current fiscal year, county workers will receive a 3 percent pay increase retroactive to June. That hike will set county coffers back $16.9 million. Next year's increase will have a $23.2 million cost. The last two years of the contract will both cost between $18 million and $19 million annually.
The proposed contract contains compensation increases similar to what municipal workers have traditionally received from the county.
The four-year contract that expired June 30, 2006, had awarded employees at University Medical Center, McCarran International Airport and the county's three dozen other departments annual hikes of 3.3 percent during each of the first two years and 2.75 percent in both of the final two.
Commissioners and SEIU officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
However, county spokesman Erik Pappa noted that the increases in each of the years fall below the Consumer Price Index's 4.32 percent inflationary increase for this year.
"We think it's a fair contract, and we're happy to submit it to commissioners for approval," he said.
If the tense negotiations between SEIU and county officials had gone to arbitration, the county likely faced being forced to award larger cost-of-living hikes.
In rendering decisions, labor arbitrators typically heavily weigh the most recent of other local governments' contracts with employees.
The most recent to settle talks was the city of North Las Vegas with its workers. They received 4 percent increases for all four years of their contract, which covers 2005 to 2008.
