Holton city employees get 2.5 percent pay raise

Holton city employees will re­ceive a pay raise in 2025 that keeps them just ahead of last year’s annua­l inflation rate, as well as an updated city insurance policy that will allow them to add a vision plan to the insurance premiums they pay.

During the Holton City Com­mission’s Tuesday, Jan. 21 meet­ing — held a day later than usual due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday, Jan. 20 — commissioners approved an across-the-board pay raise of 2.5 percent, or 72 cents per hour, for all permanent full-time employees, based on the 2024 annual inflation rate of 2.4 percent, as determined by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Commissioners also approved the annual Blue Cross/Blue Shield medical and dental insurance poli­cy for city employ­ees in 2025, not­ing that the annual insurance rate increase of 6.41 per­cent on average was well below the 15-percent in­crease budgeted for in the city’s budget for fiscal year 2025.

The city covers 80 percent of the cost of employees’ insurance poli­cies through BC/BS, with the em­ployees paying for the other 20 percent, according to Holton City Manager Teresa Riley, who noted that a total of $775,530 would be paid to BC/BS in insurance premi­ums this year.

Riley told commissioners that Blue Cross/Blue Shield is now of­fering its “Eye­Med” vision plan to employees, with employees fully responsible for covering the cost of that plan’s monthly premium. Commissioners also not­ed a minor increase in the premium cost for the annual life insurance contract for city employees, which is paid entirely by the city.

Riley presented commissioners with two options for the pay raise for permanent full-time employees, one involving a cost of living ad­justment of 2.5 percent, or 72 cents per hour, totaling $64,436, and the other involving a cost of living ad­justment of four percent, or $1.15 per hour, totaling $103,097.

The city’s FY 2025 budget had included an increase to the base pay schedule of up to seven per­cent, or $204,410 in total, includ­ing overtime pay for all city em­ployees. Riley said commissioners were “all comfortable” with the 2.5-percent adjustment.

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