State Employees Deserve Adequate Annual Pay Raises
- State Employee Pay Is Significantly Lower Than Comparable Private and Public Employee Pay. Information from the LBB shows that average state employee pay is 15 to 20 percent below what other public and private employers in Texas pay for comparable work. According to the State Auditor, the average state employee salary was $4300 below the average private sector salary in 2006. And U.S. Census data show that non-higher education state employees in Texas earn only 82 percent of the national average, with Corrections employees earning only 69 percent of the national average. By comparison, average pay for faculty at state higher education institutions is the fourth highest among the 50 states, with average pay at 118 percent of the national average according to Census data. Every source of comparative data clearly demonstrates that salaries at general government state agencies are significantly below what other employers pay for comparable work both within Texas and nationally.
- State Employee Salaries Are Overly Concentrated At The Bottom Of State Pay Ranges. In a healthy compensation system individual employee pay levels are distributed fairly normally around the salary midpoint for their respective pay ranges. By contrast, state employee salaries are overwhelmingly clustered near the bottom of their pay ranges. According to the State Auditor, nearly half of all employee salaries, 46 percent, are in the bottom quartile of their pay range, and fully 82 percent of salaries are below the midpoint. Failure to adequately reward high performing employees reduces incentives for productivity and lowers employee morale.
- Inadequate State Compensation Is Causing Employee Turnover And Other Workforce Problems.Results of the FY 2007 State of Texas Employee Exit Survey show that poor pay/benefits is again the primary reason cited by employees voluntarily leave state employment. Inadequate pay has been the leading cause of turnover in every year since the employee exit survey was reinstituted in 2001. Retirement is the next most commonly cited reason for employees leaving the state workforce. Similarly, results of the both the Survey of Organizational Excellence and TPEA’s 2007 large scale employee survey both show that, among all their benefits, employees are least happy with their pay, and by a large margin. All available evidence indicates that inadequate employee compensation is the major cause of employee turnover in the state workforce.
- Texas State Government Is Efficient. According to the State Auditor, during the past ten years the total number of non-higher education state employees (FTEs) has decreased by 6 percent, while the number of higher education employees has increased by more than 25 percent since FY 1998. 2006 Census data also show that all of the net growth in the state workforce during the prior ten years was attributable to staffing increases at state institutions of higher education. During this period service demands on state agencies have increased substantially, so state government is doing more with less. A State of Florida report found that Texas was among the highest rated states in rankings of public workforce efficiency. Texas had the seventh lowest ratio of state employment (FTEs) per 10,000 population, and the fifth lowest payroll cost per state resident.
