Many Lewis County government employees will receive modest salary increases in the new year.
The Lewis County Board of Commissioners approved four collective bargaining agreements in the month of December and also increased salaries for its non-represented workers.
The board also approved one additional bargaining agreement in the last week of November. The increases came with an amendment to the Lewis County employee handbook to accommodate the changes.
The Lewis County Deputies Guild, AFSCME Local 1341 representing Lewis County Public Works and Community Development employees, the Lewis County Corrections Guild, Teamster’s 252 representing Lewis County Operations Sergeants and lastly the Lewis County Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys have all come to agreements with the Lewis County government for changes to pay and benefits over the next few years.
These five bargaining agreements are the first of as many as 14 that the county is negotiating going into 2026. Nine unions are still in negotiations with the county for new agreements. As negotiations continue, the Lewis County Board of Commissioners has also approved a general wage increase for all of its non-union represented employees.
During a business meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 23, the county commissioners unanimously approved a 2.7% increase to the county’s general salary schedule for non-represented employees.
The general wage increase for unrepresented employees will be effective starting 2026. Approved collective bargaining agreements will also go into effect Jan. 1. They range in when they will end, with some concluding at the close of 2026 and others laying out salary increases over the next two or three years and beyond.
During the meeting, the commissioners approved changes to the employee handbook to align with the recently approved collective bargaining agreements. Changes were made specifically to align with agreements and proposals from both the Teamsters and AFSCME unions. Many are simple language changes or updates to align with state policy.
Most significantly, the changes add more specific descriptions of pay days, pay grades and requirements to qualify for different benefits and types of paid time off such as holiday or sick pay.
It is still unclear how the new contracts and those still under negotiations will impact the county budget headed into 2026. The county commissioners were already hard pressed to balance the budget heading into next year while fully funding essential services such as road maintenance and law enforcement.
According to Lewis County Budget Administrator Becky Butler, new contracts include salary increases but in many cases also feature cost savings from a change in medical benefits and insurance providers. A full analysis of budget impacts resulting from new contracts is expected to be presented to the board of commissioners in the first quarter of 2026.
The changes to the employee handbook can be viewed through the Lewis County Board of Commissioners agenda for its Dec. 23 meeting. To view the agenda, visit https://tinyurl.com/myxvc83a.
Current and previous collective bargaining agreements with Lewis County are also available to the public online at https://tinyurl.com/mtr25a7u.
Teamsters 252 representing operation’s sergeants
Teamsters 252 and the county’s operating sergeants were the first in recent months to come to a new collective bargaining agreement with Lewis County government. In this case, the contract is with the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
The new agreement is different from the rest as it sets a new way to calculate salaries for Lewis County sergeants instead of specifying each year's salary increases specifically, as has been done in the past and with the rest of the approved contracts. Patrol sergeant and deputy sergeant salaries will now be based on the top salary for standard Lewis County deputies, who negotiate their contracts and salaries separately.
Patrol sergeants, which are the lower paid of the two sergeant groups in the contract, will now make 15% more than the top paid Lewis County deputy salary.
Detective sergeants, the higher paid of the two sergeant ranks, will make 6% more than a patrol sergeant. The change means patrol sergeants will make $9,309 a month in 2026 and detective sergeants will make $9,868 a month.
Patrol sergeants previously brought in $8,792 a month while detective sergeants earned $9,232 a month.
Lewis County Deputies Guild
Lewis County deputies will see their largest pay raise since 2022 heading into 2026. Lewis County deputies are set to receive a 6% salary increase over their 2025 salaries. Lewis County detectives will also receive a 6% salary increase above that of their uniformed deputy counterparts.
Increases for individual employees will range as deputy pay scales include seven salary steps. However, a 6% increase will mean the pay range for all deputies will go from $6,365 at the lowest and $8,095 at the highest in 2025, to $6,747 at the lowest and $8,581 at the highest in 2026.
The contract term is through the end of 2027 and, as such, negotiated salary and benefits increase for 2027 as well. The salary schedule for Lewis County deputies in 2027 will increase another 5% from their 2026 pay and will also include an additional 1% health and wellness premium payment. A sum equal to 1% of their salary will go to health and wellness premium payments.
AFSCME Local 1341
AFSCME Local 1341 represents a long list of Lewis County Public Works and Lewis County Community Development employees. Those represented fill positions ranging from hands-on workers who do vehicle maintenance, engineering and other work to those doing inspections, managing mapping and geographic information systems (GIS), and more.
Compared to the deputies guild or the operations sergeants, this union has a much larger range of salary figures and steps on the pay scale. The contract just approved by the Lewis County Board of Commissioners commits the county to increasing salaries to Local 1341 workers by 2.7% as part of a cost of living adjustment (COLA). Additionally, the county agreed to increase salaries again the following year by between 1.5% and 3.0%, depending on the consumer price index released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is meant to measure the cost of living for average Americans.
According to the previous labor agreement between Local 1341 and the county, the 2026 and 2027 COLA increases will come in generally lower than previous years or, at best, equal to them. In 2025, the same workers received a 3% COLA increase, as well as a 3% increase in 2024 and a 4% increase in 2023.
Lewis County Corrections Guild
The Lewis County Corrections Guild hauled in a 10% salary increase for its six-step salary schedule, bringing all of its corrections deputies salaries up significantly. In 2026, Lewis County corrections deputies at the bottom of the salary schedule at step one will receive a $5,405 a month salary. On the other end of the scale at step six, corrections deputies will receive $6,486 a month.
The salary increase is the most significant in terms of percentage increases for any of the recent bargaining agreements. It's both a larger percent increase than other unions and significantly larger compared with the increases the same workers have received in years prior. In 2025, the same workers received a 3% increase over their 2024 salary and the same for the year prior.
The corrections contract is also the shortest of those recently approved by the county commissioners. It is set to conclude at the end of 2026, requiring negotiations of another contract through next year.
Association of Lewis County Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys
The deputy prosecuting attorneys negotiated a series of pay increases over the next three years that are on par or slightly below what they have received in previous years. All salaries on the pay scale for employees represented by the union will see a 2.7% increase in 2026 over their 2025 salaries. In both 2027 and 2028, the attorneys will receive an increase between 1.5% and 3% over their previous year salary, depending on the federal consumer price index.
The deputy prosecuting attorneys’ contract is almost opposite to the contract negotiated by the corrections guild in that it is set up to last at least until 2028 and can continue to be used beyond 2028 if no new contract is negotiated.
There are many grades and steps in the pay scale of those working as Lewis County deputy prosecuting attorneys, so exact salary increases for specific employees or groups of employees are uncertain. However, by calculating a 2.7% increase to the pay scale, the bottom of the pay scale for the represented workers will increase from $76,382 to approximately $78,444.31, and the top of the scale will increase from $160,909 to approximately $165,253.
