State employees rally lawmakers to increase pay
The Tennessee State Employees Association wants to change the way employees are classified in order to allow them to move more quickly out of entry-level compensation.
Association president Zoyle Jones said the group is upset that thousands of state employees with 10 or more years of experience are paid the same as first-day hires, which is called compression.
“We are asking our lawmakers to address the deplorable problem of compression this year,” Jones said. “Nearly all of our salaries are compressed at the bottom of the pay scale.”
Gov. Phil Bredesen already has earmarked $98.3 million in new money for a 1 percent salary increase and 1 percent bonus for teachers, state employees and higher education personnel.
After the rally, Bredesen said the administration is considering making the 1 percent bonus permanent.
But the group has said it would prefer an extra $60 million be spent on its plan instead of an additional across-the-board pay increase.
In February, Bredesen told the state employee group he wanted to use any extra money that could result from tax collections on state employee pay raises.
The employees group wants pay ranges to be adjusted each July 1 prior to awarding annual step increases to reflect change in the consumer price index.
Holding signs which read “Contractors have escalators, state employees don’t even have steps” and “We are not greedy, we are needy,” the group marched through Legislative Plaza and beseeched lawmakers passing by to increase their pay.
The protesters stopped and sat in briefly on a Senate Environment, Conservation and Tourism Committee meeting because several sponsors of the state employees’ bill were present at the meeting.
“Some of them (state employees) have never been here before,” Jones said. “I wanted them to see where the decisions are made.”
Perlie Murray-Dunn, 58, a 32-year state employee, who works for the Department of Human Services, participated in the rally. Murray-Dunn earns $2,386 a month and said a number of just-hired employees take in as much or more than her salary.
“We’re here to the legislators know we want change this session,” Murray-Dunn said.