CLEARFIELD – The Clearfield County Commissioners on Tuesday approved a new four-year contract with its Children & Youth Services collective bargaining unit.
The new contract, which covers around 23 or 24 employees, is retroactive to Jan. 1 of this year and will run through Dec. 31, 2025.
The terms of the contract include hourly wage increases of $1.10 in 2022, .60 cents in 2023 and .50 cents in both 2024 and 2025, according to Commissioner Dave Glass.
“It’s a pretty good raise,” he said, “but on the flipside, they had to accept some changes to health insurance – a higher deductible, plus spousal exclusion.”
Spousal exclusion means that the employees’ spouses who have access to other coverage through their own employer, Medicare, etc., are now not eligible for coverage. Children aren’t affected.
“That’s a big savings,” Glass said, also noting that spousal exclusion rules are trending with employers right now, including the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
“Our justification is ‘you work for us, so you’re entitled to healthcare, but everything beyond that is extra.’ We’re trying to balance salary and benefits here.”
Because of the new plan design and anticipated savings on healthcare, the county was able to shift monies to salary and wages.
“… This helps the county long-term,” Glass said, “and it helps our employees. We heard loud and clear: they wanted better wages This is how we got to that point – give and take.”
While the employees’ raises are retroactive to the beginning of the year, healthcare changes will not take effect for at least 60 days so proper notice can be given.
The county remains in negotiations with five other collective bargaining units.