Governor Brad Henry’s “State of the State” message today was met with praise from the Oklahoma Public Employees Association for its inclusion of a five percent pay raise.
What concerns the association, however, is that the wage increase is not to take effect until January, 2009, half a year into the state’s budget cycle.
“We appreciate that state employees were mentioned in the governor’s budget request. After only two pay raises in the past seven years, state employees need a pay raise now when there is unprecedented energy, food and health care costs,” said executive director Sterling Zearley.
A bi partisan effort involving the House, the Senate and the Governor will be needed to fix state employee pay issues, Zearley said.
Zearley also points out that low pay with little hope of better salaries costs the state much more than would a legitimate pay raise.
“This year, the state lost some $85 million because of state employee turnover,” he said. “Essential jobs such as correctional officers, child welfare specialists and patient care assistants have turnover rates that are sometimes as high as 50 percent because the state can’t compete with the private sector.”
Delaying the pay raise until 2009 will only set Oklahoma further back with regard to a competitively paid workforce, Zearley added.
“If state employees are not provided with a pay increase in the 2008 session, they will then be almost 15 percent behind the market,” he said. “There are positions in government that are even further behind – health care management nurses are compensated at 40 percent below their private counterparts, while child care licensing specialists are at 37 percent.”
OPEA’s answer, in legislation already filed, is a $2,700 pay increase to go into effect July 1, 2008.
Zearley concludes by saying that state employees have waited patiently while the governor and legislature doled out consistent, meaningful raises to the state’s teachers over the past five years.
“From the huge groundswell of support seen by the authors of our pay raise bills and other supporters, state employees are through standing at the back of the line while others are compensated appropriately,” he said. “Unfortunately, those who care for our sick, our children and our elderly, along with those who risk their lives working on Oklahoma’s roadways and other essential state services have to stand firm so that they can earn a decent living wage.”
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Posted on Monday, February 4, 2008
by Bud Elder
filed under