2025-11-17 Notice of Public Hearing Proposed Findings of Fact by the 2025 CoH Salary Commission, Dated August 28, 2025

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Study conducted by MGT for the County of Maui,historical salary data, salaries of excluded managers within the County of Hawai`i, the schedule of raises for both included and excluded subordinates over the past five years, challenges with recruitment for positions within the County of Hawai`i, the duties and responsibilities of the Covered Positions with the County of Hawai`i, salaries of the Covered Positions' counterparts in other county jurisdictions within the State, inversion challenges, and other public and private industry data. 6. The COH Salary Commission acknowledges that interest arbitrations are currently pending for employees in Bargaining Units 11, 12, and 15, and any pay raises for contract period July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2029 have not yet been finally determined. Employees whose positions are included in or indexed to BU 13 are set to receive a cumulative total of 15.29%in salary increases for the period July 1,2025 through June 30, 2029. Covered Positions have not and currently are not scheduled to receive any increase in salaries since July 1, 2024. 7. The COH Salary Commission considered all the above information and determined it was necessary to be competitive with the current compensation of Covered Positions to ensure the County's ability to both retain and recruit qualified employees. 8. The COH Salary Commission notes that Department Heads and Deputy Department Heads may suffer from salary"inversion"where subordinate Civil Servant and/or Excluded Manager employees are paid higher salaries than the Department Heads and Deputy Department Heads who supervise them and oversee their work. This inversion provides a disincentive for experienced Civil Servants and/or Excluded Managers to step into Department Head and Deputy Depaianient Head positions when they are vacated and makes it difficult for the Mayor and appointing boards and commissions to appoint or promote experienced employees from within the County of Hawai`i or to recruit qualified candidates for employment. The COH Salary Commission considered inversion information,which compared base salaries that did not also include other forms of monetary compensation, such as overtime pay and step increases. None of the Covered Positions are eligible for overtime pay or step increases. 9. To keep pace with CPI inflation rates,pay increases granted to BU 13 employees, and to avoid further inversion scenarios where Civil Servants and/or Excluded Managers may be paid more than their Department Head and Deputy Department Heads,the COH Salary Commission concludes that the following annual salary adjustments in base salary for Covered Positions are necessary and appropriate: Year One: 3.5% effective January 1, 2026 or on the first day of the month following the COH Salary Commission's final approval,Year Two: 3.79% on July 1,2026,Year Three: 4% on July 1, 2027, and Year Four: 4% on July 1, 2028. These adjustments are consistent with the wages paid to other County of Hawai'i employees in collective bargaining units who receive across the board pay increases, step movements, and overtime. It shall be implemented and is consistent