LaFAYETTE, Ga. – City employees don’t have to wait on a delivery from Santa because their boss has beat him to the punch.
They’ve gotten a bonus after receiving no pay raises for the last three years.
The workers are “very, very thrilled” with the extra cash, said Jan Timmons, with the city’s Gas and Code Department.
Teresa Abbott with Public Works and Electric echoed the excitement.
“Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful,” she said.
All of her bonus will probably be used to buy gifts, she said, “being as I haven’t bought Christmas (presents) yet.”
City officials say they handed out bonuses this week to give employees a financial boost before Christmas.
Salaried employees received 1 percent of their annual salary. Hourly workers making more than $15 an hour got a 1.25 percent bonus, and those making less than $15 an hour took home 1.75 percent.
The cost for 132 full-time employees was $59,000, city officials said.
“When we were doing the budget, we were still not quite able to justify the permanent raises,” City Manager Johnnie Arnold said. “With the tax collections this year and the fact that the economy has improved slightly — revenues have, anyway — we were able to justify from a revenue standpoint giving the employees this one-time bonus in lieu of the raise.”
Arnold said raises have been on hold because of the poor state of the economy.
“In 2008 we actually got to a point that we cut employees’ hours and salaried employees’ … salaries,” he said.
“Things have improved to the point that we felt like we could try to make up some of that we had taken away from them,” Arnold said.
Timothy Bradfield covers Walker County. Contact him at timothyb2010@gmail.com