Auditor’s Recommendation Would Not Keep Pace With Inflation
AUSTIN – October 6, 2002. The Texas State Auditor’s recently released recommendation of a 2.1 percent pay raise for state employees is woefully inadequate, Texas Public Employees Association executive director, Gary Anderson said today.
The Auditor’s report details recommended changes to the state’s compensation system for FY 2004-2005.
“The report does an excellent job of detailing the current state job classification system and how the state’s compensation system should work if it were properly funded; however, the recommendations for pay increases are too little, too late,” Anderson said.
“The Auditor’s report recommends a pay increase of 2.1 percent in the second year of the 2004-2005 biennium. The Consumer Price Index rose 2.8 percent in 2001 making the recommended pay raise only 75 percent of what the inflation rate was last year. What the Auditor’s office is suggesting is that state employees wait another three years for a pay raise that will not even keep pace with last year’s rate of inflation” Anderson said.
The Auditor’s recommendation would cover approximately 95 percent of all classified state employees.
Although the Auditor’s office makes a series of recommendations for other raises and bonus pay programs, it clearly states throughout the report that current salaries are simply not competitive with other employers. This same report details the fact that state employee salaries are, on average, 14 percent below current market salaries for comparable work.
“The Auditor’s recommendation of a 2.1 percent pay raise at the beginning of fiscal year 2005 ensures state salaries will fall further and further behind other employers,” said Anderson.
The state, by its own calculations, loses a half billion dollars per biennium in training and lost productivity due to employee turnover. Pay raises that are too little too late only feed the long-term chronic turnover problem in state agencies, and it is this turnover problem that threatens the quality of public services and costs the taxpayers more money.
“The proposed plan for a state pay raise will continue the downward spiral of employee turnover and result in the loss of more competent and experienced state workers at an enormous cost to the taxpayer,” said Anderson.
“We are impressed with the Auditor’s detailed outline of the compensation problem but are mystified and disappointed with the inadequacies of their proposed remedies to effectively deal with the problem,” said Anderson.
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