Raises delayed for State Civil Service Workers

The state Civil Service Commission deferred action this morning on proposed pay raises for thousands of state workers.

Civil Service director Anne Soileau said Gov. Bobby Jindal’s chief state money manager Angele Davis asked for the delay.

Jindal must sign off on whatever plan is adopted by the commission in order for it to take effect. The commission generally waits for the governor’s decision before taking action so that it does not approve a plan without a funding commitment.

The proposed plans raise the minimum pay for thousands of state employees as part of Civil Service attempts for state government to better compete with the private sector for employees.

Civil Service Urges Increase in Base Pay for some State Workers

Civil Service is proposing to increase the base pay of nearly 7,400 state employees, who are at the minimum pay in their job categories.

Civil Service Commission director Ann Soileau said Monday three options have been submitted to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s budget planners that could bring 3 percent to 10 percent pay raises to many workers.

State government could find filling jobs more and more difficult unless minimum pay increases, she said.

Soileau said she has received no word from the governor’s budget office on the proposals.

Merit increases of 4 percent annually go to most of the state’s 60,000 state Civil Service employees. Civil Service establishes job categories and pay ranges for jobs within them.

The Civil Service proposals would increase the minimum or entry level pay within those ranges

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State Employees slated for first general pay raise since 1990

Louisiana’s state employees will start seeing a $1,500 annual pay raise in their pay checks beginning next month according to this story in Thursday’s Baton Rouge Advocate.

The raise, the first general increase since 1990, amounts to
72-cents an hour. The pay increase will be retroactive to July 1, the
beginning of the state budget year.

The state Civil Service Commission on Wednesday adopted pay schedules that allow for implementation of the pay increase for some 60,000 classified employees.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco issued an executive order to implement the raise for an estimated 36,000 full-and part-time employees who are in the unclassified
service.

Civil Service Commission member Burl Cain called the pay increase “historic” because the pay raises are a flat amount that all employees will get, not the usual percentage increase.

“We did the flat rate which gives the largest percentage to the folks that make the least amount of money,” said Cain, also warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.