A yearly adjustment rule the Board can apply, and an exemption review that holds up

The adjustment rule, in outline

• Start from a published index: the 12-month change in the Consumer Price Index for the Northeast region (BLS) and the Employment Cost Index for state and local government wages, both read at the same month each year so the budget calendar can use them.
• Check the market: if the County's benchmark position has drifted from the target the Board adopts, the rule shows by how much, so the Board can move the structure and grant individual increases separately.
• Set a floor and a cap that the Board chooses, and state what happens in a high-inflation year.
• Schedule a full market check every three years and a review whenever a job's duties change.

Indicators the rule would read today

Being compiled.

FLSA exemption review

• Every title gets a row: exempt or non-exempt, the exemption relied on (executive, administrative, professional, including the practice-of-law and registered-nurse rules), the salary-basis test, and the duties that support it.
• The salary-level test is applied at the federal level in force when we report; the duties test decides most cases at a county.
• Titles paid hourly but doing exempt work, and salaried titles doing non-exempt work, are listed separately with the cost of correcting each.

Rules that matter at a county with a jail and a nursing home

• Section 7(k) lets a public employer use a work period of up to 28 days for law enforcement employees, which can include security staff in a correctional facility (29 CFR 553.211). Whether the County uses it changes overtime cost in corrections.
• Section 7(j), the 8-and-80 system, lets a residential care facility count overtime over 14 days for nursing home staff by agreement.
• Section 7(o) allows compensatory time in place of overtime pay for public employees, within limits.
• Shift differentials count in the regular rate for overtime, which ties this review to the differential analysis.