Donna Yule: State needs to understand value of retaining quality workers
Donna Yule
October 15, 2009
Idaho Statesman
The Idaho Statesman should be congratulated for the story concerning pay raises for some state employees. The story was fair and showed why sometimes people should get raises even in a recession.
The Statesman pointed out that more than half of the raises went to Idaho State Police workers who are in the third year of a five-year retention plan financed by a special $3-per-vehicle registration fee authorized by the Legislature. State Police Lt. Col. Kevin Johnson was quoted as saying the program seems to be working. Annual turnover dropped from 6 percent in fiscal 2007 to 3.9 percent in fiscal 2009.
It seems obvious to us at IPEA that pay increases will help the state retain better employees. The costs associated with high turnover will often more than offset the cost of pay raises. Retention is a problem in state government largely because most state employees are still paid less than their counterparts in the private sector.
The more interesting part of the article was the information about Mr. Gwartney. The Statesman article said, "Increases given by Department of Administration Director Mike Gwartney may be of special interest to some. Gwartney leads Otter's initiative to trim medical benefits, which was supposed to be coupled with higher pay. Benefit cuts have begun, but the pay increases haven't. Gwartney gave two top managers, Chief of Staff Teresa Luna and Financial Officer Consuelo Smith, merit raises of 10 percent and 5 percent, respectively. Gwartney defended his decision.
"They're not the lucky few" he said. "They were grossly underpaid relative to their responsibilities."
At IPEA we think Mr. Gwartney is grossly out of touch with the state employees he is making unilateral decisions for, and the comments he made underscore that assumption. Unfortunately, many state employees are "grossly underpaid relative to their responsibilities." I thought it would be interesting to find out how "grossly underpaid" Luna was, so I went to a Web site that publishes the salaries of state workers, and, according to the Web site, Luna was "grossly underpaid" to the tune of $56,721.60 per year. With her raise, she will be paid $62,393.
But this isn't about Ms. Luna. It's about Mr. Gwartney and his lack of understanding of the qualifications and dedication of the state work force.
There are many ways to save the state money and make the state work force more efficient, but destroying the morale of the entire work force probably isn't one of them.
I recently spoke to a manager in a Health and Welfare office who said she couldn't fill a social worker position because the pay is so low in comparison to the private sector. Social worker positions in DHW require a master's degree, and, if I recall correctly, the position paid about $40,000.
Does Ms. Luna have responsibilities and qualifications that justify a salary so much higher than a person with a master's degree who is often involved in making literally life-or-death decisions?
I'm just asking.
Donna Yule is executive director of the Idaho Public Employees Association.
Originally posted at http://www.idahostatesman.com/opinion/story/936550.html#
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