Richard Kraus on our Raises

Richard Kraus is a Librarian III in the Business/Economics Department. 

This is my understanding of the 5.5% increase coming in January 2014.  While this is based on my reading of the contract (MOU), it is not an official notice from either the city or the unions and any errors or misunderstanding are my own. This information only applies to clerks, library assistants, librarians, and others whose MOUs were negotiated by the Coalition of LA City Unions.
Nothing has been changed regarding the pay increase.
Remember it is a bonus for being step 5 in your classification for a certain amount of time: it is NOT a cost of living adjustment (COLA).  This means not everyone will get it in January.
Some people who will not be getting the 5.5% in January 2014 is anyone recently promoted or recently hired. This is the exact language in the amendment to the MOU:
http://cao.lacity.org/MOUs/2007-12%20MOU%2006%20Amendment%202.pdf
“Effective January 1, 2014, Unit employees at step 5 of the salary range for their classification who received the 2.75% additional salary adjustment on or after the effective date of January 1,2011, as provided for in accordance with the 2007-2012 MOU 3 Amendment 2 as modified by the October 26,2009 Letter of Agreement, shall receive an additional salary adjustment of 5.5% effective January 1,2014, provided that said employees have received the previous January 1, 2011, 2.75% additional adjustment provided for in C.1. above for at least 12 months.”
In short, anyone who has been getting the first 2.75% bonus above step 5 for at least 12 months will get another 5.5% starting in January 2014.
The MOU language is not completely clear about what happens for people who do not qualify on January 1st but would qualify at a later date.  The intent would be for everyone to get to that increase eventually once they qualify but the way the language is written does not make that clear.
The new pay rate will show up on the second paycheck in January (payday of January 22) which will cover the pay period of December 29, 2013-January 11, 2014.  NOTE: this paycheck will have a mix of two pay rates because any hours worked December 29-31 would be at the old rate.
FYI: on this same 2nd paycheck in January we will also be going back to getting paid for excess sick leave time over 800 hours.  The past two years the city was “banking” those hours for us rather than paying it out.
Our current MOU expires on June 30, 2014.  The new MOU has not been negotiated yet: there is no way to know yet what will be in it.