The Carroll County Finance Ways and Means Committee finalized the new county employee pay structure at their meeting last Thursday, March 26. While the anticipated change will ease payroll confusion, the three-week transition period without a paycheck might not be well received.
The overhaul ends a longstanding practice of paying employees in advance of hours worked.
Beginning July 1, 2026, all county employees will be paid only after they have worked their hours.
Finance Director Stacey McCaleb and Payroll Administrator Adriana Ezell spent months working through the details to implement the change.
The July Transition
The one aspect of the payroll change is that employees might have a hard time with is the gap between their last paycheck on the old structure and the first paycheck under the new one.
County employees get their last paycheck under the current schedule on June 30, closing out the fiscal year. They won’t receive the first check under the new system until July 24, covering work dates July 1 through July 15.
That is nearly three weeks between paychecks, and it lands over the Fourth of July holiday, when many employees have already planned vacations.
The county’s auditor noted that other government bodies making similar transitions have sometimes offered employees a small bridge payment to help cover the gap, suggesting something in the range of $500 as an advance to be deducted from a later check.
McCaleb expressed her concerns about the transition period.
“My biggest thing is, yes, they have time to prepare for it, but that is a big gap there,” she said.
Committee member Lana Suite said she understood the difficulty firsthand, and noted that her own workplace already contends with an extended pay gap once a quarter.
“I don’t like [the pay gap],” Suite said. “But it’s just the way it falls. It is hard. It’s harder for some of our employees than others.”
Suite said she was open to the $500 advance if it would not be new money.
“The timing is unfortunate because it falls over the Fourth of July, where a lot of people have vacation planned and you need gas money,” Suite said.
Commissioner Willie Huffman said he could see both sides.
“I’m very sensitive to the employees. I know some live paycheck to paycheck. It’s hard for them to make it as it is,” Huffman said. “But on the other side of the coin, we can’t just come up with extra money and pull it out of the sky. They should try to plan accordingly, which is going to make it harder, I know, for some than others.”
Commissioner John Austin was not in favor of any supplemental payment, arguing that employees have had plenty of warning.
“I think we’re giving adequate notice to the employees to plan accordingly,” Austin said. “I know people live paycheck to paycheck — I get it — but plan accordingly. You’re given plenty of time to make those plans.”
Austin also pointed out that starting a new job routinely comes with a similar or longer wait for a first paycheck, and that the county’s 3% raise approved at the March 5 meeting was already a meaningful benefit to employees.
The committee voted unanimously to move forward without an additional transition payment.
Why Semi-Monthly, Not Bi-Weekly
When the committee first took up the payroll transition at its March 5 meeting, the working plan was to move to a bi-weekly 26-period calendar. By the March 26 meeting, that had changed.
The county’s auditor, according to McCaleb, recommended the county stay on its current semi-monthly schedule of 24 pay periods per year.
The reasoning is that a 26-period bi-weekly calendar produces a year with 27 pay periods roughly once every 11 years. That quirk can throw off budget planning and has caused problems for other entities in the past.
Commissioner John Austin said he had heard of the issue before and agreed with the auditor’s reasoning.
The committee voted to keep the semi-monthly structure, with pay periods remaining the 1st through the 15th and the 16th through the end of the month.
Paydays will fall on Friday, with a three-day lag built in for time sheet submission.
What Employees Need to Know
The new pay structure takes effect July 1, 2026. All existing banked holiday hours must be zeroed out by June 30.
Going forward, holiday pay will be issued in the period the holiday occurs, and that rule will be applied uniformly across all county departments.
By law, employees must receive 90 days’ notice before changes to their pay schedule.
McCaleb said formal notification letters will be brought before the committee at the April 9 budget hearing for review, then distributed to staff.
McCaleb was clear that the July gap is a one-time event tied solely to the mechanics of the transition.
“It won’t happen again once we get this set up,” she said. “It’s just that transition period that causes the delay.”
For more background on the payroll changes and the 3% pay raise approved alongside them, see our report from the March 5 Finance Ways and Means Committee meeting.