Geary Community Hospital staff could be looking at a possible pay raise in the upcoming budget.

Joe Stratton, GCH CEO, explained that they are still working to finalize the budget and a pay raise is not guaranteed but it is being considered.

“It would probably be in the certainly one, one and a half, two percent range, I’d say somewhere around the two percent range at this point in time,” Stratton said.

Stratton wasn’t sure what the state average is but said that there are probably a lot of hospitals that aren’t giving out pay raises.

“We’re trying to meet all of the challenges but we want our employees to know that they are important and we want to retain those good employees that we have.”

The budget has not been finalized yet. The board of trustees is expected to consider the final budget at their next meeting.