Both chambers of the Missouri Legislature made progress on legislation that would allow state employees to be paid biweekly this week.
While state employees are currently paid on the 1st and the 16th of each month, the bills would allow them to be paid on the same day every two weeks, increasing the number of pay periods from 24 to 26 in a typical year.
Rep. Dave Griffith, R-Jefferson City, presented his bill on the House floor this week, where it was quickly perfected.
"This biweekly payment would, I think, do a lot for our state employees. Depending on when a payday falls, they could be short for the weekend or for a holiday, and I think it really serves in the best interest of our state employees to do this," Griffith said. "This session, we have done a lot for our state employees, giving them the much-needed raise that they deserve, and this is one more step in being able to meet the needs of our state employees, and I think it would be well-received."
The bill received bipartisan support, with Rep. Yolanda Young, D-Kansas City, noting the House Committee on Workforce Development, which passed the bill unanimously, received it warmly earlier in the session.
"We were surprised that it hadn't been passed long before now," she said. "It makes good common sense, good business sense, good fiscal sense and supports our workers."
The bill was perfected with no opposition or amendments Tuesday afternoon. The body adjourned for the week Thursday with the bill still on the calendar for the House's final approval.
Fellow local lawmaker Sen. Mike Bernskoetter, R-Jefferson City, championed his own version of the bill that also made progress this week.
The upper chamber debated the Bernskoetter's legislation for several hours Wednesday afternoon before finalizing its language, setting it up for passage by the body.
He said he was asked to handle the bill by the Office of Administration, which oversees the various state agencies, after a version of the legislation failed to pass last year.
Much of the debate surrounded attempts to broaden the scope of the bill to encompass several changes within the OA that were included in the version of the bill that saw floor action.
"This started out as a very simple bill, as most things do here," he said. "It just makes a small change. Currently state employees are allowed to be paid monthly or bi-monthly, and SB 997 would allow employees to be paid biweekly."
Proposals included oversight of property bonding by OA and prohibitions on vaccine mandates and discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity for OA, though the bill was ultimately pared back from a version exceeding 90 pages to one that added a single phrase to the statute adding the biweekly pay option.
The bill was unanimously passed by the Senate on Thursday morning, sending it to the House for its consideration.
Both lawmakers threw their weight behind a proposal from Gov. Mike Parson to raise the wage floor for state employees to $15 an hour and add a 5.5 cost of living adjustment as part of an emergency supplemental budget bill earlier this year. Griffith and Bernskoetter joined Veit in supporting the proposal before the General Assembly gathered in the statehouse for session, touting its importance to members of the House and the Jefferson City business community.
While he said he would vote in favor of the bills, Veit said he was neutral as far as taking a real stand on the issue.
"I haven't really heard any state employees having an issue here," he said. "I don't think either avenue really makes a difference, it doesn't change how much they get paid, but it could cost the state more to distribute checks more often."
All three lawmakers noted the state was the largest employer in the Jefferson City area, with more than 14,000 state employees calling the Capital City home.
Around 20 percent of the state's workforce made below $15 an hour prior to the increase, according to the Office of Administration.