Full-time employees for the Village of New Berlin will see an immediate pay increase upon a decision of trustees to ratify a 3% cost of living adjustment. (Photo from the Village of New Berlin website)

NEW BERLIN – Village of New Berlin full-time employees will see a pay bump, thanks to a measure approved by the village board to ratify cost of living adjustments.

In a 4-1 vote, trustees greenlighted a pay increase for its full-time staff to the tune of 3% during a meeting held at Village Hall last week. The ruling had a direct and immediate effect on four employees in the village’s public works department, as well as the village clerk. Only the mayor opposed.

“If it’s in the realm of the budget, I have no issues,” said Trustee Josh Burchill. “If we feel we have the appropriate employees in their roles and we don’t want to lose them, then we need to pay them. Right now it’s an employees’ market. Our DPW guys can go to another firm if they want to and probably make significantly more money. Let’s just be real; if they’re here and they do a good job, then we need to take care of them within our budget.”

A 3% raise for full-time employees equates to roughly $7,500 impact on the village to cover the five full-time employees included in its general and water fund budgets.

Trustees also approved a subsequent measure to kick in a 50 cent raise for a majority of its advanced life support (ALS) technicians for its EMS service in order to “level the playing field” among all ALS staff, said Mayor Peter Lennin. ALS employees will now see a baseline pay of $25 per hour.

“I’m not opposed to these increases,” said Trustee Maryellen Canuel, “but I think we need to have a serious discussion about where the money’s going to come from. I think we have to start talking about raising taxes.”

Lennon said the board will likely revisit prospects of a pay increase for basic life support (BLS) technicians for village EMS services further down the road, and discuss potential changes to the pay structure of EMS drivers.