State workers deserve a decent salary

S.C. lawmakers probably are justified in voting to spend $300,000 on a study to determine if state employees’ salaries are too low. But they shouldn’t waste the money if the study will just end up on a shelf collecting dust.

The House has approved funding for a comprehensive study of employee’s salaries. It would be the first such study in 20 years.

Even without a study, it appears safe to assume that many categories of state workers are underpaid, some woefully underpaid. For example, probation officers – who are required to hold a college degree – earn starting salaries of only $26,000.

Try paying off student loans on a salary like that.

State troopers start out making $31,000 a year.

“We have police officers out there now working two or three jobs to feed their families,” said state Rep. Mike Pitts, R-Laurens, who is chairman of the Ways and Means subcommittee that writes state law enforcement agencies’ budgets.

The study would provide necessary information about what employees across the Southeast make in both the public and private sector in jobs similar to those of state workers. Those who conduct the study also would be expected to provide recommendations for adjusting pay.

But will lawmakers listen? State Rep. Ralph Norman, R-Rock Hill, doubts they will, saying the study would only confirm the obvious, leaving the Legislature to figure out how to fund increases.

“Let’s give the money directly. ... We’re just not willing to make the hard cuts,” he said.

Some lawmakers suggested that the study might point out duplicated jobs that could be cut to pay for salary increases for other employees. But it would be naive to assume that the state can pay for raises simply by finding unnecessary workers to fire.

As Pitts noted, the staff levels of state agencies have yet to return to the levels they were before the Great Recession hit. And the population has grown since then, increasing the need for state services.

In other words, will state lawmakers have the foresight, the compassion and the guts to pay state workers what they deserve even if they have to find a new source of revenue to do it? The odds of our legislators doing the right thing instead of what they believe is the politically expedient thing are not good.

The House already has rejected a 3 percent cost-of-living wage proposed by Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, which would cost $46 million.

Lawmakers also recently backtracked on a plan to borrow $500 million in state bond money to help pay for a variety of crucial state needs. That move came after Gov. Nikki Haley strenuously opposed it, claiming the taxpayers wouldn’t stand for it. She threatened to post the names of lawmakers online who voted in favor of the proposal.

Last week the House also refused to distribute up to $10 million to 22 counties to cover part of their cleanup costs from the 2014 ice storm, saying it would throw the proposed budget out of balance. The affected counties include some of the state’s poorest and rural counties.

So, what are the chances lawmakers will do what’s necessary to bring salaries for state workers in line with their Southeastern counterparts? Is it likely the salary study will be received and ignored? We’re afraid so.

South Carolina needs to attract qualified state employees. It needs to be able to retain qualified employees so that it doesn’t have to pay the cost of retraining new ones. And it needs to pay enough to ensure that workers don’t have to resort to working second jobs or applying for food stamps to support themselves and their families.

To have a well run, smoothly functioning state work force, the state will have to pay employees a decent salary. If lawmakers aren’t going to pay attention to a study that inevitably will tell them that, why bother?

This story was originally published March 18, 2015 at 6:34 PM with the headline "State workers deserve a decent salary."