Last week, as the Select Board contemplated a deficit of nearly $1.3 million for the town’s proposed fiscal 2026 budget, the members debated whether to give final approval to a 3.19% cost-of-living increase for the town’s nonunion employees. The raise is already accounted for in the budget, so it would not increase that deficit, but the Select Board had never officially approved the amount.
Each fall, the Personnel Board decides whether to recommend a cost-of-living pay increase (or COLA) for town employees who are not covered by a union contract or by individual employment contracts. About 36 of the town’s approximately 285 employees fall into the nonunion category. Most of the nonunion employees work at Town Hall or at the library.
Until 2018, these nonunion employees received yearly step raises of 2.25% that rewarded length of service, as well as cost-of-living increases between 1% and 2.5%. But a 2018 personnel study found that Harvard paid its nonunion workers less than the market rate in a dozen comparable towns. Based on the study recommendation, Harvard replaced the step increases with merit raises linked to specific performance goals.
Last October, the Personnel Board recommended a 3.19% cost-of-living increase for fiscal 2026. That number was the average of the previous 12 months’ inflation rates. Town departments where those nonunion employees work then used that figure to begin building their fiscal 2026 budgets.
The Personnel Board sent the 3.19% recommendation on to the Select Board, which accepted its use for the purpose of building the fiscal 2026 budget. But rather than officially approving the increase last fall, the Select Board members chose to wait until they could evaluate the upcoming budget as a whole, with the increase already included.
When the matter came up for discussion last week, Select Board member SusanMary Redinger asked about the total cost of the COLA for nonunion employees. Assistant Town Administrator Allyson Mitchell said the cost is a little over $70,000 in the $35 million budget.
Select Board member Kara Minar pointed out that the unionized employees in the schools, the Police Department, and the Department of Public Works have cost-of-living increases built into their contracts. It seemed unfair, she said, to leave out the nonunion town employees.
Town Administrator Dan Nason agreed. “We have to think about what this says to these employees, who are working hard for the town,” he said. Since 2018, when the town stopped giving the yearly step raises, the COLA is the only regular raise these nonunion employees can be certain to receive.
Despite their evident concern over the budget deficit, the fairness argument carried the day, with Select Board members voting unanimously to approve the 3.19% cost-of-living raise.
Merit raises prove a sticking point
The Select Board then moved on to discuss merit raises for those same nonunion employees. In past years, the Personnel Board has suggested an upper limit on merit raises, usually 1 to 1.5%. But this year, the Personnel Board sought to suggest a more general, long-term policy with merit raises ranging from nothing to a cap of 3%.
Personnel Board members also voted that merit raises should be discussed concurrently between an employee’s supervisor and the town administration. In the past, the town administration has sometimes overridden a supervisor’s recommendation without any explanation.
Select Board member Charles Oliver expressed concern that a merit raise becomes part of an employee’s base salary, rather than being a one-time payment like a bonus. And member Kara Minar said she wanted more information on what other towns are doing.
After some further discussion, Oliver moved to approve a maximum of 1.5% in merit raises for nonunion employees. However, no one seconded his motion, and he withdrew it. The board will take up the issue again at its next meeting.
