City Employees Receive Cost of Living Adjustment

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

Cost of living tends to be higher for Alaska cities than for many places of similar size in the Lower 48.

The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s publication, Alaska Economic Trends, ranks cost of living according to a scale where the average for U.S. cities is 100. That factors in things like groceries, health care, and housing.

According to this month’s edition, Kodiak scored 132.

For comparison, New York City rounds up to 231, Chicago is about 123, and Anchorage is around 128.

Looking back at 2016, Kodiak had the highest average rent in the state, coming in at $1,429. That’s right above Juneau’s $1,381.

One group of Kodiak employees will see a pay boost to help make up for higher prices.

Last week at its regular meeting, the Kodiak City Council voted to grant all city employees a 5 percent cost of living adjustment.

According to the meeting packet, the city may appropriate $475,000 from the general fund and $145,000 from enterprise funds for that adjustment. Also according to the meeting packet, the last cost of living adjustment the city gave its employees was 2.38 percent in July 2016.

It states the city hopes the increase will help with employee retention.

 

Check Also

Kodiak Fisheries Workgroup setting priorities and action items to help local fishers after four year hiatus

The Kodiak’s Fisheries Workgroup wants to host informational forums to speed along fish-related action items …

%d bloggers like this: