Carbon County can officially close the books on updating its salary scale for positions after starting the process five years ago.

Last week, the county salary board approved several salary scale changes for magisterial districts, officially completing all position reviews.

Changes included changing the office supervisors from supervisory grade 2 salary scales to supervisory grade 5 salary scales; and secretary positions from grades 3 or 4 to grades 5 or 6.

The new scales increase these positions between 84 cents and $2.76 per hour, pending on years of service.

“That officially closes the book on the Evergreen study,” Commissioners’ Chairman Mike Sofranko said. “We have gotten through all these (positions). It is done. It was a monumental task here in the county.”

He thanked everyone involved in the project, as well as the employees who allowed for the county to work through all positions for their time and patience.

Carbon County began the salary study in July 2021, when it hired Evergreen Solutions LLC of Tallahassee, Florida, at a cost of $48,000.

The study looked at the over 300 positions in the county, as well as surrounding salaries for those same positions to best determine a scale that would be more in line with other counties.

The county started making changes to positions’ salaries in 2023, with an appeals process being created for those who felt they were not in correct grades based on their responsibilities.

Some employees left after results came out, and they were not compensated as much as they felt they should be.

Before the study, the previous salary scale had been adopted in the 1990s and was not completely updated to reflect changes in positions and duties.

In other notable adjustments, the salary board also added $2 per hour shift differentials for parking attendants on weekends and county recognized holidays, all effective June 15.

There are 10 attendants that man the county parking lot daily.

Sofranko said that the board felt that with the increase in visitors, it was putting a strain on the parking attendants, who are needed more on the weekends and holidays so adding the increases will provide more incentive to work those days.

“When you’re asking people to work on a weekend, there’s always some type of extra bonus or shift differentials,” he said. “The commissioners came up with a plan as to how to share that (the increased parking fee revenue) with them and show them that we value them being here on weekends and holidays.”

“They are the most difficult shifts to fill and it’s difficult for workers when it’s busy because of the abuse they take from a lot of the visitors,” Commissioner Wayne Nothstein said.