Roughly 150 Butler County workers are receiving a 2.5 percent pay hike.

The county salary board, which is composed of the county commissioners and controller, Wednesday approved the increase.

Nonunion employees did not receive a pay increase at the start of the year.

However, the board did not approve a one-time 2.5 percent stipend to four employees whose salaries exceed the pay range established by a salary study.

Commissioner Kevin Boozel and Controller Ben Holland opposed the stipend.

Boozel said approving the stipend would set a bad precedent.

Holland said in an interview the stipend would create problems.

“You’re opening up a can of worms,” he said.

Commissioner Leslie Osche, board chairman, explained she and Commissioner Kim Geyer were forced to forgo the stipend due to the dissenters.

The salary board did approve additional pay increases for three posts to align them with salary range minimums.

The chief assessor salary would increase more than $4,000 to reach $71,469 annually, the tax claim director’s salary would rise more than $3,500 to $52,531 annually and the administrative clerk’s hourly wage in veterans services would increase from $12.62/hour to $15.54/hour.

Originally proposed as an increase of 35 cents an hour to the salary of $22.36 an hour, the adult probation office manager was retitled as an administrative assistant II with no pay hike.

The board also increased the salaries of three probation department deputy chiefs by 7 percent.

Two posts increase from $64,784 to $69,319 annually while the third rises from $64,249 to $68,747 annually.

Those three increases were done so those employees would earn more pay than their subordinates.

Before the unanimous vote occurred, Boozel said the increase would have ramifications.

“This is setting a precedent, a dangerous one,” he said.

County President Judge Thomas Doerr, who gets a vote on the salary board for court-related issues, pointed out the court saves money in numerous other areas, including diversion courts for keeping eligible offenders out of jail.

Doerr said there has to be appropriate compensation to retain qualified supervisors.

“We need incentive,” he said.

Doerr said the decision making on who can be diverted from incarceration is not a simple process.

“This is very delicate situation,” he said.

Holland said he would support the 7 percent hikes but cautioned other officials that staffing costs need to be controlled.

He said in an interview the county cannot keep increasing wages to eliminate inequity between supervisors and subordinates.

“You’re not going to cover any ground reducing costs,” Holland said.

The salary board also adopted a compensation policy that set pay ranges for nonunion posts based on a salary study by the Archer Company.