ALERT! CORRECTION! Increase In Incentive Pay For Police and Fire Will Affect 2016-2017 City Budgets

Weekly HR News – ALERT! CORRECTION!

Increase In Incentive Pay For Police and Fire Will Affect 2016-2017 City Budgets

We recently ran the following article regarding increased overtime costs for police and fire based on the change in incentive pay effective July 1, 2016.  The article incorrectly stated that incentive pay is only included in unscheduled overtime for police and fire; the correct statement should have been that incentive pay is included in all police officer overtime and only included in unscheduled overtime for fire department members.  See the full article as corrected below:

Included in the passage of the Commonwealth’s budget was an increase in incentive pay for police and fire.  The current amount of $3100 will increase to $4000 per year effective July 1, 2016. 

What does this mean for city budgets?  Most importantly, this change will affect the payout of all overtime for police and the unscheduled overtime for fire.  As cities begin budget preparations for the coming fiscal year they will have to factor these increased costs.

As a refresher, unscheduled overtime for fire personnel includes any hours worked over 40 in a workweek that are not part of an established work schedule. The hourly rate addition for unscheduled overtime is determined by dividing the annual amount of the supplement ($4000) by 2,080.  For example, if a firefighter works 54 hours in a week where he or she is normally scheduled to work only 48, the firefighter has 6 hours of unscheduled overtime. The city will have to pay overtime on the supplement for the 6 hours of unscheduled overtime.

Incentive pay for all others (police, EMS) should be included in both scheduled and unscheduled overtime.

For more information on this service or any other personnel-related matters, contact Andrea Shindlebower Main, KLC personnel services specialist.