EVERETT — Some city employees will be getting a 2 percent cost of living raise.
The figure is based on increases in consumer price index in the entire Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton metropolitan area, which is defined by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, said Meghan Pembroke, the city’s communications director.
The increase affects 214 city employees ranging from low-level clerks and laborers to the city’s department heads. That is fewer than 20 percent of the city’s total work force, most of whom belong to a labor union.
The city’s $357.6 million budget for 2015 includes money for 1,167 full-time positions.
The Everett City Council approved the increase at its Dec. 17 meeting. The city is also in the process of negotiating new contracts with all six of its unions, Pembroke said.
In addition, the city is conducting studies of its fire, police and transit departments as part of a broader initiative to reduce its long-term structural deficit.
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