Deschutes County this month adopted new hiring practice rules aimed at eliminating pay differences between men and women, but it still has not released results of an ongoing organization-wide study into wage gaps amid County employees more than a year after its expected completion date.
In March 2024, an internal audit found wage gaps existed across the organization, and recommended going deeper with an ongoing pay equity analysis that the Deschutes County Board of County Commissioners approved in 2023. That’s one part of the County’s “Wage Equity project,” which also includes a review of personnel rules and HR policies, according to an Aug. 10 memo from Deschutes County staff.
The new rules are meant to ensure pay consistency among people working similar jobs, said Deschutes County Human Resources Director Susan DeJoode.
“Our former process was outdated,” DeJoode said in an email to the Source. “Under the new process, HR will conduct a pay equity review for each new employee and for all position changes within the County to ensure pay placement is fair and consistent for employees in comparable roles.”
Despite the lack of a public report on the County-wide wage analysis, the County has already adjusted some employees’ salaries based on the results of the study, County Spokesperson Kim Katchur said in an email.
The 2024 audit found the County was inconsistent in using individual pay equity reviews during hiring. That’s when supervisors enlist human resources to compare an applicant’s education and experience with existing employees before offering a starting salary.
DeJoode took over as HR director in July 2025, a few months after the County paid a $150,000 settlement to Deputy District Attorney Alison Filo, who threatened to sue after she allegedly discovered she was making less than her male colleagues under former District Attorney John Hummel.
The County’s 2024 audit found systemic gaps in pay for both gender and race: For every dollar earned by white men, non-white men earned about $0.90, white women earned about $0.81, and nonwhite women earned about $0.72.
That gap is on par with — if not slightly greater — than national averages, according to the Pew Research Center.
Audits of Oregon state government agencies have also found systemic wage discrepancies.
Deschutes County’s 2024 audit acknowledged that the wage gap doesn’t necessarily mean the County was violating Oregon’s Equal Pay Act, which bars employers from paying different salaries to workers with similar duties based on identity, including race and gender. Instead, the gap could be a result of other systemic factors, the audit found. For example, the audit found a little more than half of nonwhite women left the County within two years of being hired, while men tended to stay longer, resulting in higher pay.
“Focusing on retention of Non-white women may decrease wage inequities at the County,” the audit said.
According to the County’s 2024-2025 Equal Opportunity Employment Plan, women were “significantly underrepresented” among officials and administrators at the County, with a 5% difference between the percentage of female administrators at the County and the overall workforce.
Last year, conservative commissioners Tony DeBone and Patti Adair terminated an internal Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee formed in 2023 to help attract and retain employees. Adair and DeBone said hiring and retention work would be better performed within the HR department. The polarizing vote came as the Trump Administration took sweeping action to end DEI programs across the country.
On Monday, Adair acknowledged that the wage equity study was taking longer than expected, but said she feels the changes to personnel rules have already made a difference.
“The most important parts, I think we’ve accomplished them,” Adair told the Source.
In a response to the 2024 audit, Deschutes County Administrator Nick Lelack said that while the main objective of the ongoing pay analysis would be to ensure the County was following pay equity laws, it would also help the County address wage equity issues overall. Lelack also said the County planned to generate a report at the conclusion of the study and communicate it to the public.
The audit indicated the County was in the process of hiring a consultant to do the analysis, which was scheduled for completion in Spring 2025. But no report associated with the analysis has been drafted, according to DeJoode, the HR director. DeJoode said the project includes three phases and the third phase is still underway.
By press time, Katchur, the County spokesperson, couldn’t say when the pay analysis would be complete.
This article appears in the Source August 20, 2026.
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The disparities in pay that persist are very disappointing yet not surprising at all. Sigh. So much work yet to do…