DODGEVILLE — The Iowa County Board voted down a proposal to spend $30,000 for a wage classification/budget compensation study April 16.

The board voted in March to give some county employees a one-time bonus payment because the county has not created a wage increase schedule yet.

“Our staff has done a commendable job in the turbulent time of the economic downturn and the passage of Act 10,” said Sup. Carol Anderson of Cobb, chair of the board’s Administrative Committee. “The purpose of all this is to pay for performance. Progress in wages requires an investment and many people around this board table are frustrated because we are moving at a slow pace.”

Sup. Ron Benish of Highland objected to the cost of the study, not to the study. Sup. Ed Weaver of Dodgeville said any study should include private-sector market data, not just data from other counties.

The last wage study, in 2009, didn’t include unionized county employees. A wage study has not taken place since the public employee collective bargaining changes the Legislature passed in 2011.