By Bill Bowden
Given that tens of thousands of Delaware citizens are out of work or severely limited in earnings because of the pandemic, the timing for proposed increases in some state officials’ pay is not opportune. The folks in Delaware’s long food lines and on unemployment or worse will certainly not understand proposing over 10% in raises. Nor will the state employees who are being scheduled for a $500 increase.
The timing for the Delaware Compensation Commission, which is proposing these increases, is part of the Delaware Code and is scheduled every four years to complete this work. While it is required to meet, it does not have to make any recommendations for increases. In fact, it elected not to make any recommended increases in 2009 because of severe financial conditions: “Based on the economic condition of the State’s budget and the national economic climate, the Commission’s recommendations are as follows: 1. The Commission does not recommend July 1, 2009 salary increases for positions covered by this report. The Commission is aware of that and feels we are simply too far behind in paying a fair salary commensurate with the job responsibilities.”
Based on its extensive review (along with outside experts’), most of the top 230 earners in our state government are being scheduled for significant raises of more than 10%, with the chief justice getting the most, $30,000. (The top state wage earner, Mark Brainard, at $267,000 a year, is not included as he is handled by his board.) Apparently the current national financial crisis severely affecting many Delawareans does not preclude the state budget from affording these increases.
This is great news, as the proposed increases seem justified when considering the many years when the state fell short on giving employee raises to stay uniform (or even close) to the increases in the cost of living. The courts estimated the accumulated cost-of-living number to be 29% since 2005, and the suggested increase is much less than that. To me, the suggested increase does not seem out of line.
What was not clear in the report was how they factored in “emollients” for some of those on the judiciary. Do some judges get free parking in downtown Wilmington or Dover? They should also look at the unique Delaware Judicial Retirement Plan, where judges, using the state retirement calculator, get about 40% more than the rank-in-file employee when using the same salary and years of service. The state needs to be more transparent in what positions get emollients, what they are and how they are factored in.
Another thing not mentioned is that our legislators also get a special retirement deal because their $7,334 expense account counts as salary in determining their retirement. This is also a “total compensation” bonus in comparison to regular employees. It will not be lost on the regular employees that this expense account will be increased, and the legislators will get a 2% raise.
The Delaware Compensation Commission needs to transparently consider “total compensation” when making comparisons for employees who have additional types of compensation.
Essentially, they are asked to reclassify all these senior-level positions every four years, when, in fact, in most businesses and organizations, and for regular state employees, reclassification of a position only happens when there is a significant change in responsibilities. The state’s rank-in-file employees do not get the same consideration.
In my view, these suggested raises are probably justified. However, it is ludicrous to tie it to a $500 raise for state employees as the trigger to make it happen. These raises, in some cases, are in the tens of thousands of dollars, and the employees are proposed to get $500. The trigger for moving forward should be tied to a significant raise for regular employees, not just the top 200.
If the legislature allows this to be enacted, it needs to seriously look at the salary gap for the everyday worker who has also been negatively impacted by the 29% accumulated cost-of-living increase since 2005. Fair is fair!
Bill Bowden, of Wilmington, is a retired Verizon Delaware executive, past president of the Delaware Quality Award and served for eight years as the executive director of Delaware’s Department of Technology and Information.
