State employees will step into a better-paying world when they go to work today.
Pay raises approved by the Legislature took effect Sunday, the first day of the new two-year budget cycle. It means:
• At least a 3.2 percent cost-of-living adjustment for most union-represented workers. Those not represented by a union must wait until Sept. 1 for their COLAs.
• Union-represented workers also get a one-time, $756 lump-sum payment that is a leftover allocation for health care from the previous two-year contract.
• Nearly 44,340 state employees will get additional “step,” or longevity, raises of 2.5 percent effective Sunday – whether in a union or not.
• Even bigger raises are in store for workers in jobs in which pay lagged behind that of their industry peers by more than 25 percent. Those make-up pay increases range as high as 17.5 percent for registered nurses and 30 percent for some security guards in mental hospitals.
The total compensation increases for public employees are worth $2.1 billion over two years – if salary increases for K-12 and university workers and increases in pension and health benefit increases are included. Overall, it means an infusion of millions of dollars for Thurston County, which has 21,349 general-government employees alone.
The new money won’t start showing up in bank accounts until the July 25 payday, but some workers are happy.
“It’s good. It’s long overdue,” said Mary Miller, who joined the Department of Labor and Industries in 1991 and works as an occupational nurse consultant. Miller said she specializes in child- labor issues in the agency’s employment-standards unit and helps craft policies on child-labor rules and family-leave issues.
“Having worked here for 15 years, having had many years without a cost-of-living raise, and having had only one raise during that time of any substance, this is pretty remarkable,” said Miller, who earns about $60,000 and expects to see her pay go up 25 percent over the next two years.
“I would say overall, it is the best that state employees have gotten, certainly since 1962 … and I would guess the best ever. When you add up the COLA, the special adjustments and the lump-sum payment, it is significant,” said Tim Welch, spokesman for the Washington Federation of State Employees, which represents about 40,000 workers statewide.
“From our perspective, as we’ve said before, this is a good contract for state employees,” said Steve McLain, director of Gov. Chris Gregoire’s Labor Relations Office, which negotiated pay contracts with more than a dozen unions.
The biggest adjustments are for people in job categories that lagged for years behind counterparts in the public or private sectors.
The largest are up to 30 percent for some security guards at Western State Hospital and other state institutions, and 17.5 percent for registered nurses. The adjustments were based on a salary survey done last year to compare pay.
Brad Shannon: 360-753-1688
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