Pleas Made For State Worker Wage Increase 14 Percent Hike Is ‘Unrealistic,’ Says Crow, Committee Chairman

After five years as a state-employed secretary, Judy Fivecoat still brings home just $900 per month.

Fivecoat stood before a special legislative committee Thursday and cried. A single mother, her son has no VCR, no Nintendo. Kids at his Boise school call him “trailer trash.”

Fivecoat pleaded for raises for Idaho’s 16,000 state workers. A study this fall showed their wages lag those paid in comparable jobs elsewhere by 14 percent. The state Personnel Commission wants lawmakers to make up the difference.

Sen. Gordon Crow, R-Hayden, who chaired the special committee, said he feels sympathy for the employees, but a 14 percent raise is “unrealistic.”

Each percentage increase in state employee salaries costs the state $4 million. Consequently, a 14 percent increase would cost the state $56 million.

Dan Case, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 687, said Idaho is “losing good, well-trained people to neighboring states and the private sector” because the wages simply aren’t competitive enough to attract and retain employees.

Last year, state employees got raises of roughly 5 percent, but the year before they got nothing at all. Crow said of this year, “anything even in the double digits does not seem feasible.”

Fivecoat was joined by a dozen or so employees who told their stories to the committee Thursday. Fivecoat, a full-time secretary for Boise State University’s physical plant director, said her income barely covers rent, groceries and car payments. “We go to the movies twice a year - when I get my income tax returns,” she said.

Young people are told that if they work hard, are honest and get a good education, they’ll be successful, she said. But her experience points to a different truth: “You’ll be part of the poor working class.”