The city of Portage continues working on employee salaries for 2025.
Last month, the city council approved a 2.5-percent cost-of-living adjustment for non-union employees and a 3.8-percent raise for fire department administration.
As a next step, the council is considering more raises for about a dozen individual employees, ranging from about $2,000 to more than $10,000. City departments would also be able to pay seasonal part-time employees up to $20 an hour and permanent part-time employees up to $25 an hour.
"I anticipate that between now and our February meeting, a good deal of discussion will be had with council members and relevant department heads and relevant department officials," Mayor Austin Bonta said during last week's council meeting.
This comes as Portage is looking at putting together a wage study. Human Resources Director Lynn Gralik has been working on updating the city's job descriptions in preparation.
"One thing that I really like about the wage study is it will put some equity across the board amongst all employees, so if you have a laborer in one department, then it will shore them up with a laborer in another department," Gralik told council members.
When it comes to union employees, Mayor Bonta said the city has made tremendous progress on its contract negotiations. "There's been a great deal of positive blending," Bonta told said. "We are in a spot now where we're talking about economics. Some have talked about it already."
He hoped that, if discussions on economics go well, agreements could be reached in the next month or two.
