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The raises will cost at least $15.3 million annually, increasing the county鈥檚 expected budget deficit this year to $40 million.

But County Executive Sam Page said in order to keep workers and recruit new ones, employees needed better pay.

鈥淭hey really are the heart and soul of our ability to provide good services to the community, and we鈥檙e glad we were able to get this done,鈥� Page said on Wednesday.

The county has increasingly relied on staffing agencies to fill county jobs. It has spent millions of dollars a year outsourcing, for instance, medical staff at the county jail, maintenance workers for its buildings, and employees at a county-funded domestic violence shelter for women and their children. County employees have complained that the agency fill-ins are more expensive, less familiar with facilities, less invested in the work and generally hurt morale.

Without boosting pay, the county would continue to drain talent, said council Chair Rita Heard Days. But she acknowledged the county will have to figure out how to pay for the raises.

鈥淲e鈥檙e going to have to make some very hard decisions. We understand that,鈥� Days said Wednesday. 鈥淏ut you cannot have a county if you don鈥檛 have employees. So I think that鈥檚 a major investment, and we have to make it.鈥�

Some employees have been waiting for years to get raises, said Kyle Klemp, Page鈥檚 chief administrative officer. After a nationwide financial crash in 2008, the county froze pay for at least a dozen years, leaving longtime employees unhappy with their salaries, Klemp said.

When the pay freeze was lifted, some new employees were earning as much if not more than people who had been there for years. The new raises correct that problem because they focus on boosting pay for longtime employees, according to Klemp.

The raises impact merit employees and do not include staffers appointed by elected officials or workers represented by unions, such as police, Klemp said. Those departments may choose to match the raises.

Page spokesman Doug Moore said Page plans to sign the bill soon. The raises will go into effect immediately after his signature.

The raises come after a consultant last summer recommended the county increase pay by 1.2% to compete with the region鈥檚 private sector employers.

After announcing the study鈥檚 results, Page called on the County Council to approve the raises. The county, he said at the time, was relying increasingly on staffing agencies to fill employment gaps.

A few years ago, for instance, the number of jail nurses and medical assistants plummeted, even as spending on temp firms there grew by more than $4 million.

In September, the council approved $140,600 to fill vacancies in the county Department of Human Services and at the county Kathy J. Weinman Shelter for women and their children.

And in November, the council approved spending $5.2 million over two years for 17 outside building maintenance workers, at about $150,000 per worker.

Pay raises will attract and keep employees in county government, saving on contracting costs, Page has said.

The County Council also on Tuesday approved a bill allowing the chair to give raises to council employees, including budget policy Coordinator Christopher Grahn-Howard and Clerk Diann Valenti, said council Vice Chair Dennis Hancock.

Raises for Grahn-Howard and Valenti were part of a controversy last year when the county said their raises weren鈥檛 given correctly because the full council didn鈥檛 approve them. The full council later approved the raises retroactively.

The new legislation allows the chair to approve raises for council staff going forward. The council suspended its regular rules to introduce and finally pass the legislation at Tuesday night鈥檚 meeting. It passed unanimously.