Under a Gov. Gray Davis-era contract, the state for the third straight year will boost pay for 10,500 public engineers, who argued in 2003 that their salaries lagged far behind their counterparts' in local government.
The latest pay boost will cost the state an additional $126 million for rank-and-file workers alone, or an average of $12,500 per employee, according to Lynelle Jolley, spokeswoman for the Department of Personnel Administration.
While state rank-and-file contracts draw plenty of attention during negotiations, often overlooked is the chain reaction such deals can have by leading the state to boost pay for bosses who oversee those employees.
To ensure that bosses continue earning more than their employees, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's personnel administration plans a similar increase for 2,707 engineering supervisors and managers that would cost the state an additional $50 million, or an average of $18,470 per employee. The costs cover salary and related contributions to pensions, Medicare and Social Security and are retroactive to July 1.
DPA, which is responsible for setting salaries for an estimated 35,600 state managers and supervisors, has tried to keep pay for bosses at least 5 percent above that of their subordinates. The intent is to ensure that workers have a pay incentive to take management positions, Jolley said.
Schwarzenegger has been in a generous mood lately when it comes to boosting the pay of top employees. In March, he increased six-figure salaries of top state executives by 27 percent. That came after he signed legislation in 2006 that enabled him to raise top salaries to as much as $258,125.
Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association took issue with raising pay relative to other government workers.
"If your salary is based not on what it takes to attain and attract someone to a specific position, but pegged to someone in another position, it always goes one direction, which is up," Coupal said.
State supervisors in recent years have complained that rank-and-file salaries have crept too close to their own, a concept known as "compaction." A 2004 state task force established to examine pay for supervisors found that in some cases, rank-and-file employees can earn more than their bosses through incentives and overtime.
Since 1982, state civil service employees have negotiated their salary through collective bargaining. An estimated 83 percent of state executive branch non-management employees belong to one of 21 bargaining units, according to the Legislative Analyst's Office.
Managers do not have bargaining rights. DPA determines whether managers receive a pay bump, subject to approval by the Legislature in the annual budget process.
"It has been a longstanding practice to give supervisors and managers any raises that their subordinates have negotiated," Jolley said.
But Tim Behrens, president of the Association of California State Supervisors, said state management workers have seen the pay difference with their subordinates shrink over the last decade. Davis and former Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed bills that would require a 10 percent difference between supervisors and their workers, he said.
"Because of the compaction created over the last 10 years, the state is going to be facing a new threat, which is the loss of its most experienced work force," said Behrens, who has been in state management for 27 years.
But Coupal said there is nothing wrong with having management earn similar amounts as their employees.
"You have doctors in the University of California system making far more than their bosses," he said. "You have baseball players making far more than managers who are managing them."
Behrens said some state managers, such as those in engineering and law enforcement, have fared better than others.
Under the 2003 contract with state engineers, employees were scheduled to receive stepped increases each year from 2005 to 2008 to bring their salaries in line with those working in local government. In 2005, the state spent $44 million in raises for rank-and-file engineers and $19 million for their bosses. Last year, the state spent $66 million for rank-and-file and $27 million for management.
State rank-and-file engineers earned an average base salary of $77,340 after those increases, according to DPA.
Bruce Blanning, executive director for the Professional Engineers in California Government, which represents 1,000 state managers in addition to rank-and-file workers, said the state was losing top engineers before the 2003 contract.
"Top-end managers were leaving state service to work in cities and counties, where they received 40 percent pay increases with fewer responsibilities," Blanning said. "The state engineers work on freeways, highways and dams, the major infrastructure projects. And they were getting paid less than local engineers."
By Kevin Yamamura, The Sacramento Bee
(Published Sunday, July 22, 2007)