February 24, 2022 |
It is meat and potato time in the state legislature. Lawmakers in the Senate and the House spent the last few days working through lengthy lists of amendments for their respective budget bills.
The top concern this budget session is pay for state employees. At the governor’s request, the Joint Appropriations Committee is increasing pay for all positions. In his State of the State address, Governor Mark Gordon said Wyoming is losing employees because they can find better salaries for the same work in state and out.
State employees have seen two pay raises in 10 years. Between inflation and federal taxes, some make less money than they did a decade ago for the same job. The salary increase included in the budget is not universal. It is determined by the market value of each job sector. The increase works out to about 5% on average. Wages are about 19.4% below market value on average.
In the House, an amendment to increase the pay Highway Patrol troopers beyond the JAC’s prescribed amount was defeated. Representative Evan Simpson said the JAC increase is not enough.
During debate, Representative Jeremy Haroldson said managers of fast food restaurants make more money than some troopers. The discussion turned on how each state department is paid well below market value. Troopers on average are paid about 37 percent below market value. Fairness of singling out highway patrol troopers was primary objection, though. Representative Jared Olsen of Laramie County asked the House to vote no, though, and wait for another amendment that will address pay for all 7,200-plus state employees.
Olsen added if all state workers were sorted by market value gap, the employees of Department of Family Services would top of the list. Olsen said another amendment coming on second reading would address salaries across the board for state employees.
The amendment failed on a voice vote. Similar discussions were held on the senate budget bill, where funding was added to community colleges.
