The Idaho Legislature’s Change in Employee Compensation Committee, a joint committee consisting of nine members each from the House and Senate, will convene next Thursday at 8 a.m. to begin reviewing state employee compensation, salaries, turnover, state employee morale and more. The panel will take public testimony beginning at 3:15 p.m. in room EW 42 of the state Capitol. “The legislators, who have been elected to represent you, would like to hear your thoughts,” the panel’s co-chairs, Sen. John Tippets and Rep. Neil Anderson, said in the meeting’s agenda; the full agenda is online here.

After Thursday’s meeting, the joint panel will reconvene on Jan. 13 to review the governor’s recommendation for state employee raises, which will be unveiled in his State of the State and budget address a day earlier; a new report on state employee compensation from the Legislature’s Office of Performance Evaluations; and appropriation considerations for the coming year. Then, on Friday Jan. 16, it will meet again from 1:30 to 3 to take votes.

Idaho state employees went without raises for years during the state’s economic downturn. Lawmakers funded 1 percent in merit-based raises this year, with another 1 percent in one-time bonuses, though Gov. Butch Otter had recommended zero funding for raises. In the five years preceding this year, lawmakers approved only one 2 percent raise for state workers – they also got a 5 percent cut. The joint CEC Committee actually stopped meeting after 2008, reconvening last January for the first time in six years.

Despite a state law that requires legislators to keep state worker pay and benefits competitive, Idaho’s state worker pay levels have fallen far behind market rates. As of last January, some 20 percent of the state’s 25,000 employees made less than $20,000 a year, and 56 percent made less than $40,000. Overall pay was pegged at 19 percent below market rates. The latest state report shows that classified employees now make 19.8 percent below market rates. The weighted average salary is $36,877, ranking last of the seven comparison states: Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Oregon came out on top in that comparison, at $51,610.