Pay plan for YPD addressed by Yuma city council
Yuma City Council discussed the updated pay plan for Yuma Police officers Wednesday night.
The update presented was a hopeful starting salary of about $52,000 and a 10 step plan to follow.
“The one that’s on the screen here is a 3 percent step for 10 steps,” said Ron Corbin, deputy city administrator. “One of the things I like about the 3 percent is that is our goals for all of the city. So our goal that I’ve heard from Greg and the finance director is to implement some plan that has a three percent increase annually for all of our employees. We’d keep our employees on an open range and move our officers and possibly firefighters to a step plan.”
During the meeting that lasted longer than two hours, city administrator Greg Wilkinson answered council members questions and stressed one point.
“We’re trying to figure out if we have enough funds to put into place and then how much we can do to put that in place. As we know, look in the audience. There’s more than just police officers out there. There’s firefighters. There’s other city workers and stuff. So, everybody’s concerned about this process. I will tell you that the administration is and I think all departments are committed to putting something in place.”
News 11 reported in September that first responders were looking for higher wages as they want to compete with other cities around the country.
A Yuma police officer takes home a midpoint pay of $59,486.50 and in Peoria, it is $65,246.21. A 9.7 percent difference, according to YPD.
A Yuma firefighter can expect to see $51,296 as a midpoint wage whereas a firefighter that lives Peoria, Ariz. takes home $57,195, according to the Yuma Fire Department. This is a difference of 10.3 percent.
Pay for Yuma Fire and other city officials’ salaries were not discussed. City officials did mention discussing Yuma Fire pay plans in the coming months.