After nearly two years of discussion, the Clark County Fiscal Court approved a pay grade and job classification plan, a step in the right direction in recruiting and retaining county employees.

A subcommittee has been working to come up with a plan to set salary ranges and standardize raises among county employees. The court had already approved a step increase plan for annual and seniority raises for county employees in May.

Although we can appreciate the attention to detail and consideration to the plan, two years is too long to keep current and potential employees on their toes regarding salary and pay grades.

In fact, earlier this month, the Clark County Fire Department lost a full-time firefighter who cited concerns about the uncertainty involved with the pay grade plan. The court approved the status change from full-time to volunteer in the same meeting that the plan was approved.

Recruiting and retaining county employees has been a long-standing issue for Clark County. How unfortunate that the process of establishing this plan became so frustrating that a potentially good employee was lost.

However, better now than never when it comes to giving employees and hiring managers a concrete set of standards.

This plan allows the county to raise starting salaries and attract qualified employees, while helping loyal and long-standing current employees, and the court took the appropriate the extra steps Wednesday to ensure no current employees would experience cuts in pay thanks to the pay grade plan.

Now that a plan has been established, we hope the court can use this as a tool to recruit, retain and fairly compensate the county’s employees.

They are, in many ways, the backbone that carries a substantial and important load for our community.