Gop Stingier With Pay Raises Spending Plan Also Has Workers Pitching In For Health Coverage

State lawmakers face a more than $500 million question: whether state employees should get a raise.

Gov. Mike Lowry included a raise for everyone who gets a paycheck from the state - 171,766 people in all - in his $18 billion proposed budget for the coming biennium. That would cost $512.2 million.

Lowry wants a 6 percent raise over two years for everyone from the highest-paid manager to state welfare recipients, college professors and private sector vendors hired on state contracts.

House Republicans will release a budget Monday that rejects Lowry’s request for an across-the-board raise, said Rep. Jean Silver, R-Spokane, chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee.

The GOP also will propose that state employees contribute to the cost of their monthly health care premiums for the first time.

Greg Devereux, executive director of the Washington Federation of State Employees, said state workers are bracing for a 5 percent cut in the premium paid for employees and a 20 percent rollback in the premium paid for family coverage, with employees expected to pay the difference.

“That would be devastating to state employees who have been willing to pass up wage increases to preserve benefits,” Devereux said.

Right now state employees get free health coverage for themselves and their families.

“You appreciate something more when you pay for it,” Silver said. “Everyone else has to pay at least something for their benefits. State government is about the only place that does it like this.”

The GOP budget is targeted to spend about $1 billion below Lowry’s proposal, grant more than $500 million in tax cuts and leave about $250 million to $300 million in reserve, said Rep. Todd Mielke, R-Spokane, chairman of the House Republican Caucus.

Spending less and giving away more in tax reductions will require cuts in social services and sink Lowry’s proposed across-the-board raise.

“We are not going to do that,” said Rep. Dale Foreman, R-Wenatchee, House majority leader. “We will take different approaches to different people and give a significant pay raise to some and not to others.”

Silver said she thinks most state workers already are well-paid. “And they don’t get fired. Think about that,” she said.

On average, state employees make $43,866 a year, including benefits, or $34,649 without benefits.

There has been no across-the-board pay increase for state workers in two years. But between June 1993 and June 1994, 38 percent of employees received some type of salary increase. More than 20 percent of the raises were automatic step increases of 2.5 or 5 percent.

The average monthly increase was $129.

State employees also receive richer benefits than many in the private sector, including the free health benefits for themselves and their families.

The premium costs taxpayers $342 per month per employee.

A survey of benefits by the consulting firm A. Foster Higgins showed that in 1993 nationwide, more than 80 percent of state governments and more than 85 percent of large employers required some contribution by employees for family health care coverage.

State employees also enjoy other benefits, tangible and intangible. They range from good job security to taxpayer-funded contributions to their retirement plan; a sick leave program that allows them to collect cash for unused sick days, and free trips from frequent flyer miles accrued on trips paid for with taxpayers’ money.

They also get 11 paid holidays a year, in addition to 12 days’ paid vacation their first year on the job. Vacation increases to 15 days within five years.

However, they are ineligible for lucrative fringe benefits that private sector employees can earn, such as profit-sharing and stock options.

State employee unions have argued for years their benefits compensate for wages that lag behind the private sector.

Surveys show that’s not always true.

A study released in August 1993 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed state and local government workers earned higher wages in 81 percent of jobs in which comparison was possible in the Seattle area.

Government employees earned an average of 15.2 percent more than their private sector counterparts, the study found. Benefits weren’t included in the comparison.

Jobs examined included everything from truck drivers to data entry technicians.

But another salary survey by the state Office of Personnel completed in May 1994 shows some state employees are paid below the market rate.

Physical therapists are paid nearly 43 percent less than their private sector counterparts, correctional officers make 30 percent less, and auditors 23 percent less, according to the survey.

Others, including food service aides, are paid more than 40 percent above private sector rate. Janitors make 7.6 percent more.

Benefits weren’t included in the survey.

Lowry has argued an across-the-board raise is needed to maintain employee morale and performance.

Giving employees little or no raise and cutting benefits tells state employees their work is not valued, Devereux said. “That would be terrible for morale.”

Ruta Fanning, Lowry’s budget director, warned against granting targeted pay raises instead of an acrossthe-board increase.

“You can wind up with salaries compressed to the point some managers are not making much more than the people they supervise. That becomes a problem,” Fanning said.”You don’t see across-the-board raises in the private sector,” Silver said. “And you’re not going to see it here.”