GPA will be proposing a substantial new employee pay increase plan next month, as a study shows the workforce has fallen even further behind their mainland counterparts.

Management added that the higher pay is even more critical, as fierce competition is making it harder and harder to recruit and retain key workers.

The latest survey by a GPA consultant that compares workforce salaries to a national market survey, found that the local pay has actually regressed further.

What was thought would bring them to the 25th percentile of comparable nationwide salaries, is actually around the 5th percentile.

GPA’s ultimate goal is to get pay to the 50th percentile, or the middle of the pack nationally, but their intermediate next move, said General Manager John Benavente, is to raise salaries to the 30th percentile.

“We're slowly progressing up there but we're always getting behind the 8-ball if you will, right. So that's what's gonna be brought up to the CCU. We're looking again to keep it within our rates, not provide for rate increase to accomplish it, but we have to be competitive, Nestor, because 50 to 60% of the GPA workforce is eligible for retirement as I have said for the last five years,” Benavente said.

With that, GPA has kept a keen focus on building its bench, and not losing key workers who it has spent substantial time and money to train.

Benavente said, “I'm already feeling the brunt of losing key employees to the federal government. Because if you look at today they're getting all kinds of benefits including going to the PX, the commissary, things that I cannot give.”

Benavente added that current payroll accounts for about $50-million of GPA's annual $500-million budget.

The proposed pay increases will amount to about $5-million.

“If you look at our labor force Nestor, look at where our count is, we used to be as high as 700 employees at GPA, in 2015 when I took over we had 512. You know how many employees we have today? about 420…Yes, I hope we achieve this and again assure the public we're not gonna increase the rates, we'll have to work smarter and of course compensate our employees,” Benavente said.

The new wage increase plan will be presented to the Consolidated Commission on Utilities at a meeting next month.