Members of the Little Rock Board of Directors voted on Tuesday to boost pay for the lowest-paid full-time municipal employees to a minimum of $15 an hour, fulfilling a goal Mayor Frank Scott Jr. laid out in his most recent State of the City speech.
Officials approved amending the current year's budget ordinance to provide full-time, non-uniform employees at least $15 an hour and to boost the pay of other employees to compensate for the increase.
The change will be reflected in the city's general fund as well as the street and waste disposal funds, according to the measure. The total increase across the three funds is expected to be $297,724 during the remaining seven months of 2022.
Members of the city board adopted the ordinance along with other grouped items in a voice vote.
Arkansas' minimum wage, which applies to businesses with four or more employees, is $11 an hour.
When reached via email Tuesday, city spokesman Spencer Watson said the salary adjustments associated with the measure would not affect the positions on the city board.
According to Watson, at the moment, the city's lowest wage across full-time, non-uniform positions is $12.53 per hour and is out of the Public Works Department.
City officials lately have had to grapple with a stubbornly high vacancy rate for municipal positions.
As of mid-April, there were 194 positions unfilled out of the 1,778 jobs budgeted under the city's general fund, Watson said at the time.
During his State of the City speech on March 28, Scott called for adopting or exploring a series of hiring and retention initiatives.
They included raising pay to at least $15 an hour by 2023 to ensure full-time employees receive a "livable wage" and providing sign-on bonuses for hard-to-fill jobs. Scott also referred to the possibility of a staggered four-day work week for some departments.
At a meeting May 10, Little Rock Human Resources Director Stacey Witherell told board members that officials would use an equity review policy and examine work experience and education to determine the size of the salary adjustments for the additional employees.
Additionally, Witherell said that fewer than 100 employees were presently earning less than $15 an hour, and she put the total number of employees expected to experience a pay increase around 200.
At the meeting last week, Witherell said officials hoped to make the raises effective June 4.
Prior to the vote Tuesday, City Director Ken Richardson of Ward 2 thanked the mayor and City Manager Bruce Moore.
He said that ensuring this class of city employees received adequate or competitive pay was a "constant theme" of the late Ward 1 City Director Erma Hendrix during her time on the board.
Hendrix died in office last September at age 91 after representing the ward for more than a decade.