Home > News City, school longevity pay tops $9M By Thor Jourgensen / The Daily Item

LYNN Taxpayers paid $9.2 million in longevity pay extra money given to most city employees after theyve worked a certain number of years in 2012, according to city records.

That amount included $6.4 million paid in longevity to 1,254 school employees last year, according to School Business Administrator Kevin McHugh. Another $2.7 million paid to almost 600 other city workers represents a three-fold increase in longevity pay during the last 20 years.

McHugh said about 730 school employees do not receive longevity.

Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy said city employees receive the money regardless of how theyve performed.

It is a perk, a bonus paid not for any merit, said the citys chief labor contract negotiator.

School Committee member Rick Starbard agreed, saying longevity awards all city and school workers.

You can be a super teacher or a crappy teacher, come five years, youre getting longevity, he said.

Described in a statement from Police Association President William Sharpe as wage increases that are tied to the number of years an employee remains employed..., longevity has been a half century-old staple of municipal bargaining contracts, according to union officials.

I see longevity as an incentive for qualified, experienced employees to remain on the job, said Roger Ennis, the citys chief inspector and president of a city union representing about 50 municipal supervisors and school nurses.

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City, school longevity pay tops $9M