AUBURN -- A resolution instituting a two-week pay lag for Cayuga County employees was tabled at Tuesday's Ways and Means Committee meeting.

Currently, county employees get paid a day in advance, meaning they collect pay Friday morning that pays them through the end of the work week. County officials are looking to change the system because employees are getting paid before they've actually worked the time.

The resolution would only apply to non-bargaining employees and would not affect elected and appointed officials. If the resolution is brought back and approved at a later date, employees will see a four-hour deduction from each paycheck for 20 pay periods, totaling 10, 8-hour days.

The pay lag should be applied to all employees rather than only non-bargaining ones, said Legislator Raymond Lockwood, R-Fleming.

"I don't think we should tell a small group of people that they're lagged because they don't have a bargaining unit," he said. "Everybody (should) share the pain."

Lockwood believes details should be ironed out rather than penalizing a small segment of employees and making a decision based on a knee-jerk reaction.

Next year, the county will have one employee processing payroll for more than 900 employees and it is important to have the ability to review accuracy, said County Manager Wayne Allen, adding that the lag will give that person enough time to do so. This is a common practice both in the public and private sectors.

"This is not unusual," he said. "The vast majority of municipalities are lagging payroll."

However, employees would not lose that money. Once an employee leaves the county for whatever reason, they would get a final check after two weeks, Allen said.

Sheriff's deputies and corrections officers have agreed to the two-week pay lag and the county is currently in the process of re-negotiating contracts with the CSEA and the New York State Nurses Association bargaining unit to institute the pay lag as well, Allen said.

Ways and Means Chairman Francis Mitchell said he wants to iron out a few details before bringing this back through the committees. For example, Mitchell, R-Genoa, said he is interested in how this will affect new employees who are already with the county as well as newly hired employees.

"I want to know a little bit about what other governments are doing," Mitchell said. "Conceptually it's fine. We already have this in the agreement with the sheriff's and the corrections officers. ... It needs to be consistent as possible."