WARWICK — While a proposed wage and stipend increase for town employees and elected officials could see Selectboard stipends double for fiscal year 2022, the stipend would still be one of the lowest in Franklin County.
The Finance Committee has recommended increasing salaries and stipends for certain town employees by 2 percent, and in some cases $2 per hour. No position has been taken by the Selectboard, and these changes would need to be approved by voters at Annual Town Meeting.
In an email to Selectboard and Finance Committee members, Finance Committee Chair Diana Noble shared a wages spreadsheet, which she said represents the work conducted at the last Finance Committee meeting.
“We spent most of our meeting comparing our town wages and stipends to other towns and looking at the minimum wage changes in Massachusetts in the last few years,” Noble wrote.
She noted that wages and salaries were last increased in Warwick for fiscal year 2020, and that in the last two years the minimum wage has increased by about 12 percent.
Should certain salaries and stipends be increased by 2 percent or $2 per hour as the Finance Committee recommends, the overall town budget is estimated to increase somewhere between $9,000 to $15,000. The Selectboard asked Noble to bring a more specific figure back to the board at a later meeting.
Per the Finance Committee’s plan, wages for the town coordinator, animal control officer, highway superintendent, tax collector, assessor’s clerk, library staff, treasurer and town clerk would increase by 2 percent. The Police Department has three different levels of positions and these would each increase by $2 per hour, which equates to a roughly 12 percent increase over this year’s numbers. The town secretary, custodian and Board of Health clerk would also see their wages increase by $2, from $15 to $17 per hour.
Elected positions that receive stipends include the moderator, Board of Assessors, Fire Department, Board of Health and Selectboard. In looking at the Selectboard stipends, Noble said they are “dramatically lower” than that of other towns in Franklin County. The Finance Committee recommends the Selectboard stipend be doubled from $1,200 to $2,400, to be divided among the three members.
“It’s still very much a stipend, a recognition, though hopefully it takes some of the hurt out of somebody’s giving up an hourly job for the couple of hours that it takes to meet every other week,” Noble said.
Zack DeLuca can be reached at zdeluca@recorder.com or 413-930-4579.