OLATHE, Kan. — Johnson County sheriff’s deputies are in line for a raise. 

On Thursday the Johnson County Board of Commissioners (BOCC) voted unanimously to increase starting pay for sheriff’s deputies. 

The sheriff’s department will now use a step pay plan for sworn civil service staff including deputies, master deputies, sergeants, lieutenants, captains, majors, bureau chiefs and colonels.

This scale places starting pay for deputies at $27.50 an hour. That rate represents a slight increase from the proposal presented to the board earlier this month.

Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden has reported more than 60 vacancies within the department this year alone.

To bolster recruitment efforts, new hires will temporarily start on the second step of the pay scale. Starting deputy pay will increase to $28.50 an hour until the department vacancies drop below 14 deputy positions. 

“Fourteen is the average vacancy number in the deputies for the year 2021,” Deputy County Manager Maury Thompson said.

Under the new plan current deputies will also be bumped up to the $28.50 an hour pay range, representing roughly a 14% pay increase from current wages. Following pay scale projections, most positions will see an annual pay increase of roughly four percent. 

Thompson said by approving the pay increase other incentives previously approved by the board would be eliminated including:

• $195,000 for a wage compression adjustments in 2022. 
• $300,000 for hiring bonuses for 2022 and 2023 
• $1.5million for retention bonuses for 2023
• $780,378 for a 2023 range movement adjustment at 2%
• $780,378 for a 2023 compression adjustments at 2%

Deputies will still receive retention bonuses for 2022. The new pay table and associated pay increase would cost roughly $3,195,533 for the remainder of 2022, and approximately $13,249,020 in 2023. Funding for the pay increases in both 2022 and 2023 will be paid for through the Countywide Support Fund (CSF).