The city of Bowling Green is looking to raise starting pay for firefighters and police officers to keep up in the labor market.
An ordinance to raise starting pay for both departments received approval on a first reading from the Board of Commissioners Tuesday evening. If approved at its second reading, it will take the starting firefighter salary from $45,585 to $54,000 and starting police officer pay from $51,500 to $60,000, effective July 1.
Erin Hulsey, the city’s director of human resources and risk management, presented the proposed increases to the board, which exceed the city’s 6.5% cost of living adjustment.
“First I would like to note the timing is a little bit unusual, this is not normally when I come before you and make recommendations to pay schedules, we normally do that in June,” Hulsey said. “We’re about to kick off a fire recruitment … we wanted to be able to use these rates to kick off that recruitment.”