Nearly 45,000 state employees would receive a 2.5% general raise and a step increase next fiscal year under a tentative deal announced Wednesday afternoon by Gov. Ned Lamont and labor leaders.
The agreement, which still must be considered by the General Assembly and by bargaining units within the State Employees Bargaining Agents Coalition, covers nearly the entire state government workforce.
All employees would get the general 2.5% increase on July 1. A step hike, which is available to all but the most senior workers, would be applied midway through next fiscal year, on Jan. 1. It typically boosts annual salary by about 2 percentage points, though for some employees it is larger.
Bargaining units that don’t have step classifications would receive supplemental funding equal to roughly 2% of their members’ salaries. But those units, along with management, decide how to distribute that supplemental funding among staff.
“Our state employees each and every day dedicate themselves to serving the people of Connecticut in many ways, including taking care of our most vulnerable, educating our children, protecting our safety, and many other responsibilities upon which we rely,” Lamont said. “This agreement continues the current wage pattern, reflecting our need to ensure the retention of our best employees while recognizing the need to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. I want to thank our union partners and our negotiating staff for their efforts with this agreement.”
When asked about the negotiations, SEBAC spokeswoman Drew Stoner said, “We appreciate the administration coming to the table in good faith and reaching an agreement on time that recognizes how essential and critical it is to grow and maintain the state workforce on which the people of the state can count.”
Lamont and unions struck a four-year deal in 2022 that granted a 2.5% general wage increase and step hikes for each the first three fiscal years — from 2021-22 through 2023-24 — and various changes to benefits. They agreed to reopen and resolve compensation this spring for the final fiscal year, 2024-25.
Workers also had received two lump-sum payments totaling $3,500 in 2022. No such payments were included in the deal announced Wednesday.
Despite those raises, the labor coalition wrote in a statement that “there is much more to be done. We continue to face a service crisis due to recruitment and retention lapses at many of our work sites.”
The coalition added that “Our state’s working families — and our economy — depend upon a strong, stable, and effective public service workforce. That is only possible with fair pay, decent benefits, and respect for the voices of those on the front lines. Reaching agreement on this reopener is just one small step in an ongoing effort by our coalition to secure real solutions for our members and the communities we serve.”
Lamont’s budget office said cost estimates for the proposed raises are being developed and will be presented in the next few days to legislators when the tentative contract is filed with the House and Senate.
But when the 2022 contract was ratified, the legislature’s nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis estimated that if a 2.5% general wage increase and step increases were provided in the 2024-25 fiscal year, it would cost $173.8 million.
House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, offered a positive preliminary review of the deal.
“Connecticut state employees keep our state healthy, safe, educated and more,” he said. “It is important to recognize their good work and recognize that the cost of living keeps going up. I look forward to reviewing the details of the agreement as it moves through the process.”
But Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, and his House counterpart, Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, questioned late Wednesday whether the agreement is affordable.
“State government, under one-party Democrat rule, has found even more taxpayer money — and a lot of it — to appease the state employee unions,” the GOP leaders wrote in a joint statement. “How many people on Main Streets throughout Connecticut are potentially getting a 4.5% raise this year? How many struggling working families are receiving 4.5 % raises? Why are we increasing fixed costs in the state budget and thereby crowding out funding for other essential services?”
The agreement does not apply to the Connecticut State Police troopers, whose union does not belong to the SEBAC coalition. Troopers are slated to receive a 2.5% general raise and a step increase in the upcoming fiscal year under an existing contract.