For example, the cost of advertising, recruiting, screening and hiring a new employee can be as high as $1,000 per staff member, and losing a fully trained employee is like having $5,000 walk out the door, the cost of fully training some staff positions.

The new highway department pay scale, which has been in the works for about two years, raises the starting pay and puts in annual step pay increases for the first five years instead of having hikes at six months, 18 months and five years.

County Administrator Steve O’Malley said the new highway department pay plan carries an average pay increase of 1.2 percent. That’s on top of an across-the-board pay raise of 1.75 percent for county staff that is part of the proposed budget. That’s better than average for regional government staff pay increases but falls short of the average private sector raises, he said.

The new highway pay plan adds $32,924 to the 2019 county property tax levy.

The 29-member deputy sheriff’s union, meanwhile, negotiated with the county for a new three-year contract that includes a one-time base wage adjustment of 1.5 percent and includes annual pay increases of 1.75 percent. The estimated cost of changes to the contract are $69,000 for 2019, $39,000 for 2020 and $40,000 for 2021.