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State employees who serve risky roles are receiving pay increases of 20% in some cases and $1.50 per hour in others effective April 6, state officials said Friday.
Meanwhile, Senate lawmakers expect to present a proposal next week to their colleagues for a pay raise that rewards some private-sector employees for staying on the job.
Money from the $2 trillion federal subsidy package passed in late March will be available to pay for at least part of the state worker pay increases, said Beth Fastiggi, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Human Resources. The $1.50 pay increase will cost the state $300,000 per two-week pay period, Fastiggi said; she said she didn’t have a cost estimate for the 20% increase yet.
The public-sector pay increase is effective until May 9.
Gov. Phil Scott on Friday extended his stay-at-home order to May 15, idling thousands of Vermont workers. But people in jobs deemed “essential” in the public and private sector are still working, some of them in environments that put them at increased risk of catching the virus.
The premium pay for state workers was the result of negotiations with the Vermont State Employees’ Association, or VSEA, and the Vermont Troopers’ Association.
“It is important that the state have sufficient staffing levels to maintain operations in order to care for those individuals in state custody or under state care, especially in the 24-hour facilities during this critical time,” Fastiggi said.
The 20% pay increase will go to people assigned to work in facilities where someone has tested positive for Covid-19, such as the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans, where 32 inmates and 14 staff members have tested positive, the Department of Corrections announced Friday. That 20% increase is also available to any state employee required to work directly with a person who has tested positive for Covid-19.
The $1.50-per-hour pay increase will go to people who work in correctional facilities, the Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center, and other Agency of Human Service jobs where workers have direct contact with the public.
Vermont State Police lieutenants who have direct, face-to-face contact with the public are also eligible for the raise, said Doug Gibson, the communications director for the Vermont State Employees’ Union.
The agreement also provides state workers with an additional five weeks of paid sick leave for employees who are sick or have an underlying condition related to Covid-19, and an additional five weeks of paid family leave for people who have to care for a family member because school or child care has closed.
Fastiggi said one reason state officials don’t yet know exactly how much the pay increases will cost is because it’s not yet clear what employees will be called in to do.
“The Administration expects a need for and is setting up isolation facilities for those under supervision of the state (corrections, DCF for example) who have or are recovering from COVID-19,” Fastiggi said in an email. “The staffing needs for those facilities are not known at this time and it depends on whether the facilities are opened, and if they are, how many patients need to be treated.”
For the last few weeks, lawmakers and some business leaders have been looking for a way to use state money to pay for temporary pay increases that will encourage workers to stay on the job instead of leaving to collect state and federal unemployment insurance that is soaring as high as $1,100 per week during the Covid-19 crisis.
Sen. Tim Ashe said he had put together a small group to look at the options for adding pay bonuses in the private sector. Some companies, such as First Light in Poultney, have already raised manufacturing workers’ pay on their own.
“I asked a number of senators to start working with our fiscal team about a week ago to come up with some options” that use state or federal funding, Ashe, D/P Chittenden, said on Facebook April 8. “The options range from complicated to simple.”
The issue of equity has come up as the crisis has unfolded over the last few weeks. Many white-collar workers have been able to move their jobs to the relative safety of their homes, while people in production jobs have had to continue reporting to work.
“I just want people who are at work, at risk, who feel like you are the only ones who haven’t received the federal government’s attention, we understand that’s just not right,” Ashe said. “We’re going to try to do something about it.”
Accordingly, the pay raise isn’t aimed at workers who can do their jobs remotely.
“We’re aiming for people who are at some risk; an example is people who stock grocery shelves,” said Sen. Chris Pearson, P/D-Chittenden, part of the group looking at a private-sector pay raise.
“If they all peeled off and decided to collect unemployment insurance where they would be earning more money than they are today, we’d all be in a whole lot of trouble,” Pearson said. “So that’s what we have been trying to address.”
Pearson didn’t say exactly how much money the group is talking about adding to workers’ paychecks, but it won’t be enough to match the $600 that the federal government is adding to every weekly state unemployment check. That sum represents $15 an hour.
“It may not match $600, but it also allows people to keep their job and have job security, and many of them get to maintain benefits,” Pearson said. “And many Vermonters take great pride in the work they are doing.”
