After 22 months of negotiations, Barrington`s police union signed a contract with the village this week.
The Village Board on Monday night unanimously approved the two-year contract that was only resolved after arbitration.
Under the contract, the top salary, which has not been adjusted since May 1, 1990, will increase to $41,050 from $35,317. Officers will receive retroactive pay increases, said Detective Kevin Croke, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 177.
Croke said 20 of the department`s 23 officers are at the top of the village`s pay scale under the former contract, which expired Nov. 30, 1990.
The new contract added two more salary levels, resulting in six different levels for officers. The top salary will be reached after the sixth year of service, instead of the fourth year, said Croke.
Earlier this summer, when negotiations were particularly bitter, the union posted two large neon signs in the village announcing that Barrington officers are among the lowest paid in the northwest suburbs.
But he also said the result of the negotiations is a ”high-quality contract. We fought long and hard for it.”
Health insurance was left out of the new contract. Instead, both sides are presenting their case to an arbitrator and have agreed to accept that decision, Croke said.