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Prevailing Wage Ordinance

Every year, SLOCEA and the County use the Prevailing Wage Formula to determine the annual increases, a process that is mandated by the Prevailing Wage Ordinance, a ballot initiative that was passed by voters in this County in 1984. The Ordinance reads:

“In fixing compensation to be paid to persons in the county’s employ, the board of supervisors and every other authority authorized to fix salaries or wages, shall provide a percentage change in compensation at least equal to the percentage change in compensation for the same quality of service rendered to persons, governmental agencies, firms or corporations under similar employment. Prevailing salaries or wages shall be determined by negotiations between the county’s employer representatives and the recognized employee organization(s).”

Ever-evolving through negotiations, the Prevailing Wage formula currently requires that we survey the wages, medical benefits and retirement allowances of various classifications in eight comparable counties: Kern, Marin, Monterey, Napa, Placer, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and Sonoma. The County strikes the counties with the top two numbers and SLOCEA eliminates the bottom two. The four remaining counties’ figures averaged together constitutes the yearly increase for SLO County employees.

The Web sites for the Prevailing Wage counties are as follows:

San Luis Obispo
Kern
Monterey
Marin
Napa
Placer
Santa Barbara
Santa Cruz
Sonoma