Norwin, North Huntingdon consider wage hikes for summer workers

Facing challenges in hiring summer workers, North Huntingdon Township raised the wages for its summer laborers, and the Norwin School District is considering doing the same.

Township commissioners this week unanimously approved raising the wages of summer employees from $11 an hour to $15 an hour.

The township needed to raise the wages of its seasonal workers because “the recent economy has driven wages much higher in a short period,” said Mike Turley, the township’s acting manager. North Huntingdon’s summer helpers must be at least 18, Turley said.

North Huntingdon was unable to attract enough seasonal labor last year at $11 an hour, Turley said. One of six positions went unfilled in the parks and recreation department last summer, and one of two positions remained unfilled in the public works department. A lot of businesses last year were trying to attract workers with higher wages than the township was paying.

“I thought it might be an issue for us,” Turley said recently.

To compensate for paying the workers a higher wage than budgeted, Turley suggested the township could remain within the budget by hiring one fewer worker or shortening the number of weeks the seasonal labor would work.

Commissioner Virginia Stump suggested waiting until April before making a decision, to see how the economy is going.

Commissioner Jason Atwood said he would favor raising the hourly rates, as long as the total cost for seasonal labor remains within the budget.

The township might opt not to hire a summer intern for the professional staff in the Town House because of the remodeling and moving around of administration offices and police detectives, Turley said.

At Norwin, the school board raised the pay of its summer workers — community residents, college students and high school students — from $10 per hour to $13 per hour.

The administration said it could not fill all of the summer positions last year when it was offering workers a rate of $10 an hour.

The pay raise recommendation was made after conducting a local summer employment market hour wage analysis so Norwin could be competitive with the local job market.