Kinston city council approves market adjustment recommendation for city employee salaries

KINSTON, N.C. (WITN) - The Kinston City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a market adjustment recommendation that will increase salaries for city employees, including essential workers and part-time staff.

The decision follows a compensation study conducted by the city, the first in 20 years, that found Kinston employee pay lagged behind neighboring markets, particularly in sanitation, fire services, street maintenance and fleet mechanic departments.

The study also found that long-tenured employees were still earning near entry-level wages.

Mayor Pro Tem Felicia Solomon said the adjustment reflects the value of the city’s workforce.

“When we talk about that word essential, essential also means what? Valuable and so a laborer is worthy of his wages, and so therefore taking the time to compensate them in a way that’s competitive to our neighboring towns and municipalities, it’s the right thing to do, it’s what’s right,” Solomon said.

She says those with the parks and recreational department will also feel the benefit.

“Our part time workers with our parks and rec, when I tell you they put in work, day after day, evening after evening, summer after summer, and so they too will also see an increase in those part time wages as well,” she said.

Interim City Manager Ralph Clark said the funding was identified through a revised investment strategy.

“It’s coming from a number of places, but one of the important places was we revised our investment strategy and we had some cash that was in the bank that was not earning the same interest that we could earn and so we picked it up, moved some money around. But we were able to find some idle funds that were not lost anywhere, but they were just not earning what we could get out of them,” Clark said.

Kinston resident Jenise Albritton said she supports the pay increase but wants to see improved training and accountability, particularly in trash pickup.

“Early mornings my neighbors garbage, everything sitting on the sidewalk, but when you leave it’s now in the street,” Albritton said.

Albritton said pay should match performance.

“I think it comes down to training and making sure that if you want the next level of pay, do the training,” she said.

Clark said the salary increases are intended to help retain city employees while ensuring they are compensated and invested in.

The city will also routinely review positions and adjust the pay plan and salaries annually to keep up with neighboring markets.

The full market adjustment will be incorporated into the Fiscal Year 2027 budget.