A salary study to determine proper salaries for various positions in Carbon County is still moving forward.

On Thursday, the commissioners provided an update on the wage study that was contracted last year.

Jim Thorpe resident Jerry Hoare questioned the county on why the study is taking so long.

“The underpaid county employees are getting hammered by inflation,” he said, noting heating oil is near $5 a gallon and PPL is planning another hike in June.

Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein said that Evergreen Solutions LLC of Tallahassee, Florida, is still working on the study.

The county asked employees to put together their job descriptions and then supervisors had to review them.

The study will then look at these positions against other similar positions around the area and determine a fair salary based on the tasks they do daily.

“We’re getting there,” Nothstein said, adding that it will still be about another one to two months before the county gets a preliminary report on the study findings.

Commissioner Chris Lukasevich said that Evergreen has completed about two of the 10 tasks in the study, but the remaining tasks will go quicker.

He noted that only about half of the county employees responded to the request for information on their current jobs, which doesn’t provide for a complete picture for salaries.

“If they want to help us ensure the most accurate study possible, they need to participate when asked to provide the requested information,” Lukasevich said.

Carbon County hired Evergreen in July at a cost not to exceed $48,000.

The goal of the study was to look at the positions of the over 300 employees and determine a proper compensation scale across all departments for the same type of positions. The county currently has 16 levels for salaries for nonsupervisory positions and about 21 levels for supervisory.

The last study regarding employee salary rates was adopted in the 1990s, and since then, the system has been piecemealed because positions evolved and more and more titles were created.

Carbon County first discussed moving on a survey looking at employment classifications at the beginning of 2021 after a suggestion at the annual salary board by President Judge Roger Nanovic.