Nobody who works on Beacon Hill is getting rich off the 3 percent raise that Senate President Therese Murray gave to a small number of staffers and Speaker Robert DeLeo gave to all House employees. Still, granting the pay hikes at this time sent the wrong message — not just to taxpayers, but also to human-services workers who make much less and remain subject to a wage freeze.
As the economic crisis deepened in 2008, lawmakers began to take a harder look at compensation and benefits for government workers, on the reasonable grounds that they should share in the sacrifices facing private-sector workers, who were absorbing pay freezes and cuts. Even amid more hopeful economic signs, that same sense of caution needs to prevail. Tax collections in October came in well under expectations, the state’s unemployment rate has ticked upward, and economic growth has slowed. Governor Patrick implicitly acknowledged the risks when he held off on releasing 2 percent salary hikes to employees of state human-services providers (though not when he gave a 3 percent raise to hundreds of non-union managers in July).
Comments
These employees of the state have not had their wages raised in years. We have a corrupt pizza chain's CEO taking a bonus in the midst of bankruptcy. The head of Liberty Mutual walks off with a package unearned by any account. This small increase for state workers will be spent and added to the general economy. It is a good move for taxpayers in general and these taxpayers in particular. We now have low paid workers finally exercising their rights to a livable wage in the Fast Food Industry. These trends help our country, not the reverse. The Globe also needs to recuse itself from such comments as they themselves try to shortchange their staff wherever they can. The turnaround for wage recession in this country is to realize how many people are trying to live off near slave labor wages while many still cling to the false notion that the "invisible hand of the market place" will straighten things out. It only does so for a chosen few and leaves too many with unlivable lives.
How much are they currently making? A list of salaries - no, make that total compensation - for all levels of employment would be instructive (and surprising, I suspect).