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Today's Poll!Panel hears 2 state worker pay measures
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
A House committee was reminded several times Monday afternoon that Missouri state employees are the nation’s lowest-paid.
The Workforce Development and Workplace Safety Committee was asked to endorse two bills proposing to improve that ranking — Rep. Mike Bernskoetter’s resolution to extend the life of the Joint Interim Committee on State Employee Wages for another two years and Rep. Paul Fitzwater’s bill to require pay increases equal to the increased costs of health insurance premiums from the previous year.
The committee took no action on either bill Monday.
“I was reminded that the state has no money,” Fitzwater, R-Potosi, said as he introduced his bill. “Neither do the state employees.”
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Comments
gofish 1 year, 2 months ago
Some day maybe Missouri will elect a majority or Representatives and Senators that are pro-government and will therefore see government employees as allies.
Silverado_Phil 1 year, 2 months ago
How does the salary of the state politicians rank against the other states? Are they also the lowest paid? I don't know but I would venture a guess that they aren't.
You get what you pay for. That's a good saying. The state pays low so they don't get the attract and retain talent when it comes to employees. And the talented employees that they do hire, leave for better paying jobs. High turnover causes problems. You lose the time and money from training, you lose the experience, and you lose stability. Nothing gets done because no one is around long enough to do anything worthwhile. So the less talented employees just do what has always been done. It gets the job done but doesn't necessarily mean its the best way. From what I hear, the IT department is like walking back in time to the 1980's, before quality control, before project management practices. Nothing will improve because nothing is documented and no one is around long enough to do anything.
JCLifer 1 year, 2 months ago
How about a pay bill that automatically links annual cost of living adjustments to the Consumer Price Index? That would be a good start, and one that is not subject to political cronyism, etc.
How about not only a pay raise, but bring back a fair match for the differred comp plan? Not a measly $25 / month, but a more competitive dollar-for-dollar match up to 10% of the workers' salary, etc.?
mmhh 1 year, 2 months ago
What about raising the cigarette tax which is embarassingly low? Raise the tax on a health curse to raise Missouri workers' quality of life!
TraceyT 1 year, 2 months ago
The state has no money to bring the state employee wages up? I guess the state has lots of money to waste on turnover though. Have you looked into turnover costs? Several articles I have read say that for an entry level employee, turnover costs are 30% - 50% of the annual wage (including cost of any benefits), with the percentage rising sharply as the employee level goes up. The real problem is that the politicians are penny wise and pound stupid. The entire state government culture is built on the principle that it is better to buy something with a payment plan of $3 every year for eternity rather than buying the same thing with a one time payment of $5. But that's ok, because the state workers can just keep "doing more with less" to make up for it.
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