A pay raise for state workers is still in play as Florida lawmakers return to the Capitol this week to work on a state budget.
Under an agreement the House and Senate reached May 31, some 112,000 state employees would receive a 2% salary increase with a minimum raise of $1,000. Few details about other parts of the spending plan have been released.
Lawmakers will begin meeting in conference committees on June 3 and said they expect to pass a budget by June 16, two weeks before the end of the fiscal year. What was supposed to be a 60-day legislative session ending May 2 paused without a new state budget because lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis became embroiled in spending and tax cut disagreements.
But a state worker pay raise could become another front in a series of increasingly personal feuds between DeSantis and lawmakers.
The governor did not include a state worker raise in his budget recommendation earlier this year, but the Senate continued to push for one. The Senate’s original proposal in April included a 4% hike, while the House was silent on the issue. The two chambers compromised on a 2% boost.
“Inflation is still a reality impacting families here in Tallahassee and across our state. Investments in employee pay, retirement, and health insurance are important for recruitment, retention, and morale. I commend President Albritton and Chair Hooper for holding the line and standing firm on this top priority of the Senate,” Sen. Corey Simon, R-Tallahassee said in a statement. He represents more than 22,000 state workers.
“As we move forward into the conference, the Senate will continue to prioritize additional targeted increases for law enforcement, firefighters, and other professions where we need to further increase salaries to remain competitive with the private sector,” he added.
What Florida state workers are paid
The average state worker earns $23.96 an hour, or about $49,847. A 2% increase calculates to about 50 cents an hour or about $1,044 annually. Most state workers earn between $35,000 and $60,000 annually.
If a straight 2% across-the-board raise were approved, lower paid workers would receive an increase of about $700 annually, but at this time the proposal has a minimum raise of $1,000. Previous raises included a minimum increase of $1,500.
Based on past budgets that included a 3% pay raise, the cost of a 2% boost would be around $200 million to the state. At the same time, Florida has the smallest and least expensive state government workforce, according to the Department of Management Services’ annual workforce survey.
At $39 payroll cost per resident, Florida spends less than 49 other states; Arizona is second at $52. The national average is $91.
DeSantis’ exclusion of rank-and-file workers from his budget proposal broke a streak of five years where he had included pay raises for all workers and additional bonuses and recruitment incentives for law enforcement and other specific job classifications.
In 2020, DeSantis pushed for a 3% raise for all state employees. The next year, the governor signed off on former Senate President Wilton Simpson’s effort to increase the pay of nearly 2,000 minimum wage workers to a constitutionally mandated $15-an-hour minimum wage. The change amounted to a 36% raise for some workers.
DeSantis did call for a 5.3% raise in 2022, a 5% increase in 2023, and signed off on a 3% pay raise in 2024. It remains to be seen if a 2% increase will survive a week of budget negotiations and DeSantis’ line-item veto review. When he released his spending proposal in February, he called it the “Focus on Fiscal Responsibility Budget.”
House and Senate leaders intend to send a proposed budget to DeSantis on June 16. The fiscal year ends June 30.
What’s next
James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com and is on X as @CallTallahassee.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida lawmakers will weigh 2% raise for 112,000 state workers
Reporting by James Call, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Tallahassee Democrat
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