Pay plans for first responders voted on by city council

UPDATE (7:50 p.m.) 

Yuma police officers and firefighters will see a raise starting July 1.

Yuma City Council voted on pay plans for Yuma Police Department, Yuma Fire Department and all city employees. 

The compensation study presented at Tuesday's work session showed on average all city employees are paid seven percent under market, according to Greg Wilkinson, City of Yuma administrator.

City employees will see an estimated 4 percent raise in July 2019 and the remaining 3 percent in July 2020 said Wilkinson.

This after months of talks with both departments who claimed they were struggling to recruit and retain. 

ORIGINAL STORY 

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KSWT, FOX 9) - Yuma Police agreed on a payment plan, according to Eric Eagan, Fraternal Order of Police President. FOP believes there is a  99.9 percent chance council will vote on a plan for YPD.

Yuma City Council is set to talk about pay plans for city employees. 

It's no secret Yuma Police and Yuma Fire have been in discussion with the City of Yuma for months about plans to help them recruit and retain first responders. 

During the city council work session Tuesday night, a compensation study showed 78 percent of city employees salaries are below the market.

Some of the examples presented during the work session showed that firefighters are underpaid at their entry level more than nine percent compared to other cities, according to the compensation study. 

Yuma police officers are underpaid more than three percent at their entry-level, according to the compensation study.

Some of the cities the compensation study compared the City of Yuma to were Peoria, Tucson, and Yuma County. 

This story is still developing.