GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The city of Green Bay is looking to raise the pay for its seasonal workers, but there’s debate on how much the increase should be and how to pay for it.
For at least the past two years, Green Bay’s parks department has had to limit or shutter some city pools, park programs and Bay Beach rides due to the inability to hire seasonal workers.
“It’s across the board,” said Dan Ditscheit, the city’s parks director. “It’s not just lifeguards. It’s not just the summer park playground program. It also goes into our maintenance staff and forestry staff.”
In hopes of keeping everything open next summer, parks staff recommended a 25 to 30% increase for seasonal salaries. However, Mayor Eric Genrich only put a 10% bump in his budget proposal for next year. The difference is $202,995 between the two proposals.
“If we go with a 10% increase… you’ll see that we are dramatically lower than all surrounding communities for almost all of our positions,” said Ditscheit. “We heard from the lifeguards this year that De Pere pays a lot more, so why would we come work for you? Our employees are telling us that.”
Last summer, Green Bay’s starting lifeguard pay was $12.36 an hour. It would go up to $16 an hour, matching De Pere, under city staff’s recommended increase.
“We really want to get our pools open,” said Brian Johnson, Green Bay’s city council vice president. “We want full access to the public. To me, this is a core service, a core responsibility. We have to figure out how to do that.”
City Council President Jesse Brunette was the lone committee vote against raising the increase from 10% to 25 to 30%.
“I love the idea, but where is the money coming from?” said Brunette.
The committee ended up deciding to use about $40,000 in ARPA money to help cover the higher increase.
The wage increase could change again as the full city council is expected to vote on the budget next week.
Ditscheit says the city tried a bonus program this past summer, but it had little affect on attracting potential employees.
Read Mayor Genrich’s full 2023 budget proposal for Green Bay.
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