Living wage already in place in Waynesville
Activists hoping to press the Town of Waynesville into adopting a living wage for full-time employees were recently told that the town was, in fact, already doing so.
Local advocacy group Down Home North Carolina issued a report showing persistent poverty among the working poor in Haywood County, especially for women and minorities. During the data collection phase of the report, 65 percent of respondents said raising wages would solve a litany of problems like housing cost burden and hunger.
A 2016 law prohibits municipalities in the State of North Carolina from setting a minimum wage or from demanding of municipal contractors a minimum wage, but it doesn’t stop them from adopting policies regarding the pay rates for their own employees.
“I think the idea of a minimum wage is a bygone concept,” said Waynesville Mayor Gavin Brown.
To that end, almost 30 DHNC supporters turned up to a town board meeting April 10 to make their case for a so-called “living wage,” which they define as 210 percent of the poverty level. That breaks down to $12.30 per hour.
Only seven of the town’s 175 full-time employees don’t currently make at least $12.30 per hour — five maintenance workers, a customer service representative and a lifeguard.
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All full-time town employees currently make at least $12.15 per hour, and will likely see wages rise slightly come July 1.
“It will be in my recommended budget,” said Waynesville Town Manager Rob Hites of the 3 percent merit increases he’s proposed that would push those seven employees to at least $12.39 per hour.
“We gave a cost of living increase in July 2016,” Hites said, referring to then-Interim Town Manager Mike Morgan’s 2016 action. “Since then, there hasn’t been enough inflation to merit another COLA.”
But that $12.30 living wage figure drops to $11 an hour when benefits are included, and all full-time town employees receive benefits, including a generous health care package and retirement plans, meaning that all full-time town employees are and have been compensated well above DHNC’s requested minimums.
Aldermen took no action during the meeting in terms of creating or implementing an actual policy, and vowed to look into the wages of part-time employees in the future.
Regionally, the Town of Canton became the first living wage-certified government in Haywood County in 2016, adopting the $11 figure for workers with benefits, and $12.50 for those without.
