A total of 157 nonunion Butler County employees will not get a pay raise next year.

The county salary board on Wednesday did not approve 3 percent pay increases for them.

The board voted 2-2 on that motion with commissioners Bill McCarrier and Dale Pinkerton voting yes and Commissioner Jim Eckstein and county Controller Ben Holland voting no.

The raises would have cost the county $220,000 to $225,000.

McCarrier said that almost all of the county’s union employees this year received 3 percent increases from an arbitrator, and asked if it is fair to penalize nonunion employees for not being in a union.

“I don’t think so,” McCarrier said.

Eckstein said pay raises should be revenue neutral and said he would vote no out of respect for the new county commissioners who take office Monday. He said all three of the new commissioners — Leslie Osche, Kim Geyer and Kevin Boozel — have indicated that they do not want to raise taxes, and said this pay increase could make that difficult.

Eckstein said the salary increases are not in line with the county’s salary study.

Pinkerton said the commissioners have tried hard to follow the salary study, but said Eckstein and Holland have their own ideas.

Pinkerton said the nonunion employees work just as hard as union employees and said most of them are exempt from overtime and are the ones making managerial decisions. He decried Eckstein’s and Holland’s no votes.

“It’s wrong what these two are trying to do to our nonunion people,” Pinkerton said.

Holland said he could not vote in favor of 3 percent raises because the county has an unbalanced budget and noted that the new county commissioners are looking to reopen the budget.

“Nothing personal, I’m just doing my job,” Holland said.

Pinkerton told Holland that he should not take his scheduled pay increase in 2016 or 2017 since he voted against the nonunion raises.

“I don’t plan on (taking the raises),” Holland replied.

Eckstein said the row officers should take their pay increases, saying they work hard and said row officer pay increases are much smaller than they used to be, and less than 3 percent.

“I’m not talking about the rest of the row officers, they deserve it,” Pinkerton replied.

The salary board also tabled motions to give 5 percent raises to chief assessor Chris Savage and tax claim director Janet Mentel.

Eckstein made the motion to table these decisions, saying the new commissioners should act on these pay increases.

On Monday, Eckstein advocated putting pay increases for Savage and Mentel on Wednesday’s meeting agenda. In an interview, he said he felt the employees deserved a raise, but said there is not enough money for a 5 percent hike.

Additionally, the salary board created a new investigator position for the public defender’s office. This part-time position pays $20 per hour with no benefits.

Kevin Flaherty, chief public defender, said most public defenders’ offices have an investigator and said the new position could actually save the county money since the office would otherwise have to hire someone each time it needs such work done.