diff --git a/writeengine/wrapper/writeengine.cpp b/writeengine/wrapper/writeengine.cpp
index 130b8193cc..8da33caad4 100644
--- a/writeengine/wrapper/writeengine.cpp
+++ b/writeengine/wrapper/writeengine.cpp
@@ -1728,7 +1728,20 @@ int WriteEngineWrapper::insertColumnRecsBinary(const TxnID& txnid,
     //--------------------------------------------------------------------------
     // allocate row id(s)
     //--------------------------------------------------------------------------
-   curColStruct = colStructList[0];
+
+   // MCOL-984: find the smallest column width to calculate the RowID from so
+   // that all HWMs will be incremented by this operation
+   int32_t lowColLen = 8192;
+   int32_t colId = 0;
+   for (uint32_t colIt = 0; colIt < colStructList.size(); colIt++)
+   {
+        if (colStructList[colIt].colWidth < lowColLen)
+        {
+            colId = colIt;
+            lowColLen = colStructList[colId].colWidth;
+            curColStruct = colStructList[colId];
+        }
+   }
    colOp = m_colOp[op(curColStruct.fCompressionType)];
 
    colOp->initColumn(curCol);
@@ -1738,12 +1751,12 @@ int WriteEngineWrapper::insertColumnRecsBinary(const TxnID& txnid,
    vector<ExtentInfo> dictExtentInfo; //Save those empty extents in case of failure to rollback
    vector<ExtentInfo> fileInfo;
    dbRoot = curColStruct.fColDbRoot;
-   //use the first column to calculate row id
-   ColExtsInfo aColExtsInfo = tableMetaData->getColExtsInfo(colStructList[0].dataOid);
+   //use the smallest column to calculate row id
+   ColExtsInfo aColExtsInfo = tableMetaData->getColExtsInfo(colStructList[colId].dataOid);
    ColExtsInfo::iterator it = aColExtsInfo.begin();
     while (it != aColExtsInfo.end())
     {
-        if ((it->dbRoot == colStructList[0].fColDbRoot) && (it->partNum == colStructList[0].fColPartition) && (it->segNum == colStructList[0].fColSegment) && it->current )
+        if ((it->dbRoot == colStructList[colId].fColDbRoot) && (it->partNum == colStructList[colId].fColPartition) && (it->segNum == colStructList[colId].fColSegment) && it->current )
             break;
         it++;
     }
@@ -1755,7 +1768,7 @@ int WriteEngineWrapper::insertColumnRecsBinary(const TxnID& txnid,
 
    oldHwm = hwm; //Save this info for rollback
    //need to pass real dbRoot, partition, and segment to setColParam
-   colOp->setColParam(curCol, 0, curColStruct.colWidth, curColStruct.colDataType,
+   colOp->setColParam(curCol, colId, curColStruct.colWidth, curColStruct.colDataType,
        curColStruct.colType, curColStruct.dataOid, curColStruct.fCompressionType,
        curColStruct.fColDbRoot, curColStruct.fColPartition, curColStruct.fColSegment);
    rc = colOp->openColumnFile(curCol, segFile, useTmpSuffix); // @bug 5572 HDFS tmp file
@@ -1800,8 +1813,11 @@ timer.stop("allocRowId");
        ((totalRow-rowsLeft) > 0) &&
        (rowIdArray[totalRow-rowsLeft-1] >= (RID)INITIAL_EXTENT_ROWS_TO_DISK))
     {
-       for (unsigned k=1; k<colStructList.size(); k++)
+       for (unsigned k=0; k<colStructList.size(); k++)
        {
+           // Skip the selected column
+           if (k == colId)
+               continue;
            Column expandCol;
            colOp = m_colOp[op(colStructList[k].fCompressionType)];
            colOp->setColParam(expandCol, 0,