Are state employee unions really requesting double-digit pay raises during the secret negotiations with the Governor’s office? According to The Olympian: “Schiel said in an interview before face-to-face negotiations began - which triggered a no-disclosure rule for negotiators - that his union could seek a double-digit raise for the two-year contract period in 2015-17.” A cursory review of the 2014 state salary survey the unions are basing their pay raise request on indicates it is heavily benchmarked to other public-union employers. A true “market” survey may want to base the comparison on what a position is worth to the average applicant and not based on the strength of another public-sector union’s ability to extract wage concessions. As for what it means to the current (secret) state negotiations, it looks like OFM’s summary (available on request) shows that when total compensation is taken into consideration – the state isn’t having a problem retaining its workforce. From the OFM presentation: 2014 SURVEY RESULTS WRAP-UP •Two thirds of state job classes are at or within 25% of the market. •The majority of state job classes have a 90% or higher retention rate – including many of those that fall into the more than 25% behind the market category. •The state salary ranges are competitive at the entry level but lose ground in progression to the top (Step A to Step L). •The state still offers platinum/gold benefits plans that are comparable to other public sectors and better than most private sector offerings. Despite a 3% increase in employee contribution rates in fiscal year 2011, Washington state employees still have an overall lower contribution rate than the majority of the market. •Across the enterprise (aggregated statewide data) our current compensation market position has not adversely impacted employee retention, turnover or our ability to hire. However, looking forward as the private sector continues to gain ground and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) provides additional impetus for our aging workforce to retire, we may begin to see adverse impacts to our position. While in the short term these secret negotiations should be opened up to the public, ultimately they should be limited to non-economic issues. Anything requiring an appropriation should be part of the normal public budget process in the legislature and not be a take it or leave it (which likely never will happen due to time constraints on budget and re-opening negotiations) proposition for lawmakers buried in the back of the budget.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 15:15:39 +0000
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