38
■ COST-OF-LIVING
i PAY ADJUSTMENT PLANS
FOR CITY EMPLOYEES
Reprinted from Public Management,
January, 1947
“ The International* City Managers’
Association made an inquiry, among the
15 cities which were known to have
adopted a cost-of-living pay plan.
“Ten of these 13 cities use the con
sumers price index as the basis for mak
ing pay changes. These cities include
Portland, Oregon/'0n,e city, Brookline,
‘Massachusetts, uses the.-ç.ostto^living
index of the state department of labor.
Two cities, Columbus, Ohio, and San
Diego, California, discontinued their
cost-of-living pay adjustment plans
three years ago.
"The first city to adopt a cost-of-
living .pay 'adjustment plan
Taul in 1922. Thé other cities hav^
adopted their cost-of-living Schemes
since 1940, and the base for pay-changes
is the 1935-39 period. The W '/^ities
where the plan is in effect apparently
have kept up with the rapid/mcrease
in the \cost-of-living index, i Most of
these cities limit the number of ,pay ad
justm ents to one a year, but because
of the rapid increase in the cost of liv-
■ ing during the last, six months' of 1946
.'several cities made m ore-than one in
crease.
| 'Wenerally there is no pay adjust
ment made unless there is a change of
from two to five points ih the indexi.
The pay adjustment usually applies only
Inter City Sand &
Gravel Co.
Sand, Gravel, Crushed Rock
Excavating and Road Building
Eugene, Oregon
Phone 958
to a certain portion of the salary., A
one-point change in the index means a
one per cent change in pay” and in
some cities “ the percentage change ap
plies only to the first $100 of monthly
salary.”
I ''Information supplied by I city ^-of
ficials on cgst-of-living pay adjustment
plans in the eleven cities is summarized