State employees’ salaries increase slightly, according to report
State government employees saw a 2.4 percent salary increase from 2007 to 2008, but that was not enough to keep up with the 4 percent national inflation rate, according to a report from the Washington-based AFT Public Employees Union. The ninth annual AFT Public Employees Compensation Survey also found that state employees’ salaries still lagged behind the private sector, but employees who participated in collective bargaining earned more.
The 2.4 percent increase was an average across the 45 occupations included in the survey. It was much less than the previous year’s average increase of 5.7 percent. “This report is more evidence that we’re not doing enough to support the essential work of public employees,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten in a statement. “Public structures such as roads and bridges, and public services such as healthcare and public safety, drive our economy and promote the common good. If we want strong states and communities, we need to invest in these engines of growth and prosperity and the people behind them.”
Private sector salaries exceeded state employee salaries in 20 of the 24 job classifications in which comparisons were made, with a 30 percent difference in 12 of those jobs. However, collective bargaining gave employees an advantage in 42 of the 45 occupations surveyed, providing a 10 percent wage advantage in 25 of those occupations.
The entire survey is available at
www.aft.org/pubemps/pubs-reports/PEcompsurvey08.htm.