While much attention was drawn to the proposal to raise the wages of Sheboygan’s Mayor and Alderpersons, some of that attention resulted in some “truth-bending” in apparent efforts to paint a truthful-looking, but factually inaccurate comparison to the rest of Wisconsin.
The Common Council on Tuesday will have a chance to look at proposed wage increases that include, among other things, a 26% increase in 2025 for the wages of the Mayor with 3-1/2 percent annual increases thereafter until 2028, and 4% annual increases for alderpersons through 2027. No vote will be taken as the proposal will be sent to the Finance and Personnel Committee for review and possible revisions.
While 26% is by all measures an impressive raise for the mayor, the figure is not without substance. And contrary to information supplied in what can only be considered an apparent effort to create opposition to the ordinance being proposed – or those who would benefit by it, the resulting salaries would be entirely in line with the status quo in Wisconsin, if not still a bit on the short side depending upon the perspective.
Among the flurry of input being received late on December 28th about the proposal was a comparison of mayoral salaries in Wisconsin. That source indicated wage levels that may have been representative at the time of their initial collection, but which have since faded into irrelevance. That this fact was omitted by the source constitutes “getting one past” the editorial process; one that, going forward, will serve well to illustrate how “facts” can sometimes seem factual…so long as context is obfuscated. It makes this job all the more difficult since “news’” is not opinion, which must be called for what it is and weeded out when it appears. And here is where context becomes crucial.
Years ago it was a well-known fact that the City of Sheboygan had fallen behind in how it was compensating its officials and employees. The firm Carlson-Dettman was commissioned to study the situation and recommend changes. The study, Resolution 24-22-23 enacting wage classifications and steps recommended by that study, was approved by the Council on September 6, 2022. The proposals to be considered within the ordinance to be heard on Tuesday, January 2, 2024, and to then be sent to the Finance and Personnel Committee for review and possible revision, reflects those recommendations. To make an honest comparison – using the case of the Mayor’s salary as an example – more recent information than was initially made available shows an entirely different picture.
If approved, the salary of the Mayor of Sheboygan, which is already set for a raise to $59,448.04 on April 16th this coming year, would leap to $75,000 per year in 2025. That’s a 26% increase – a figure that, absent of context, seems exorbitant. But in context, that’s not the case.
Apples-to-apples comparisons are nearly impossible, given that mayoral duties and responsibilities aren’t standardized, nor are the issues and their impacts the same from one city to the next. Population, then, becomes one variable that can be more of a standard, and Sheboygan has had a more-or-less stable population of about 50,000 for, well, a long, long time. So here are study results of mayoral salaries from September of 2022 published by Fox 11 News in Green Bay, that can provide the proper context that was, unfortunately, compromised in the original comparison:
Manitowoc, with a population of 33,738 – some 16,000 or so less than Sheboygan, pays its mayor $75,248.
Greenfield, population 36,720, pays $97,917
Brookfield, population 37,920, pays $121,742
Appleton, population 72,623, pays $105,086
Green Bay, population 104,057, pays $102,299
Madison, population 233,209, pays $157,548.
Milwaukee, population 594,833, pays $147,336
To review, Sheboygan is proposing a mayoral salary to take effect on the third Tuesday of April, 2025, of $75,000. Raises of 3-1/2 percent would follow each year thereafter until reaching $83,153.84 in 2028. Even if passed as proposed, and as long as one insists on comparing to compensation provided by others, Sheboygan’s mayoral pay will still be in the bottom tier of comparable cities.
During a conversation about the subject with Sheboygan Common Council President Alderman Dean Dekker, he pointed out that the Carlson-Dettman study’s intent was to establish a standardized wage structure and to ensure city staff are being fairly compensated for the work they perform. He agreed with the fact that one of the persistent workforce issues voiced over and over again in surveys of the local economy is that of attracting and maintaining quality workers. Without quality workers, whether manufacturing, service or otherwise, quality output suffers.
City employment is no different, and although one can take pride in all the other reasons to work in and around Sheboygan such as quality-of-life, recreation, transportation and such, wages still rise to the top of issues that a job candidate considers. Non-wage issues like quality-of-life can’t really be addressed through ordinance. The Carlson-Dettman study demonstrates that if Sheboygan is to expect quality performance, it should expect to pay fairly for that quality. That is done through ordinance
