Rilie Morgan, Horace

Mercifully another election season is in the review mirror, and a big thank you goes out to all the people who ran for elected office. Congratulations, also, to those of you who were elected to serve the great state of North Dakota. The time to get to work for the citizens of this state is fast approaching, and there are many issues up for debate and consideration. Property Tax Relief, access to affordable childcare, and Income Tax Reform are just some the things bantered about during the campaign season.

But one issue that needs sunlight, and cogent discussion is the State Employee Annual 3% pay raises, more specifically in recent years the reduction of them, and the outright denial of any raise at all. In all fairness, the reader ought to know I am a State Employee going on over 15 years. My opinions do not represent all of us public employees, and there are differing opinions about benefits and compensation. But one thing all public employees can agree upon is the need for a substantial increase this biennium to the 3% annual raise. Many readers may think that is a bold statement, or perhaps question the reasoning behind it, which is very fair. But we can use logic, reason, and facts to make our case for this raise, which should be 6% at least for each fiscal year in the coming biennium, assuming the employee gets a positive review.

Many a time in the past, budget projections have fallen short of expectations, and this is a problem because State Legislators constitutionally need to balance the budget. No deficit spending here in North Dakota, which might be a good thing. One way of doing this, is to manipulate the 3% raise due to all State Employees. It’s interesting to see how many times this has happened. For example, during the last biennium for fiscal year ’22 the increase was 1.5% with a minimum increase of $100.00 a month, and for fiscal year ’23, which is the current one, the increase is 2%. Keep in mind these “raises” happened during a time when inflation is the highest it’s been in forty years. And we are only just beginning. The fiscal years of ’21 and ’20 the raises were 2.5% and a 2% with a minimum increase of $120.00 and a maximum increase of $200.00 a month. The fiscal years of ’19 and ’18 are easy to remember because there were no raises for public employees.

As a State Employee you can understand everyone has to make sacrifices during a budget shortfall, so when you get 0% raise for two years you’re disappointed. However, you expect in the next biennium your regular increase, but that didn’t happen in ’21 and ’22. And while most State Employees during that biennium had to go with a little less, some others who worked in Bismarck got bonuses totaling over 8 million dollars. Talk about kicking a guy when he is down! It’s frustrating enough to know what should’ve been a 12% raise over 4 years is now 4.5% raise with a cap on it, but to find out some State Employees received a bonus when you had no opportunity for one, is very hard to understand to put it mildly. In a statement Governor Burgum said the bonuses are a, “tool authorized by the Legislature to reward performance and help retain team members in a competitive labor market.” A reasonable person might apply the same statement to justify the need for a 6% pay raise for fiscal year ’24 and ’25 for public workers in North Dakota. I understand Governor Burgum has no control over State Employee raises, but right now the way it looks on paper, the annual 3% pay raise is used for balancing the budget.

Another consequence of cutting the 3% increase is the exponential nature of them; they build on each other. When one has worked for the State for thirty years, and their 3% increase has been diminished ten times, the result is a loss on total salary of thousands of dollars. Just in fiscal years 2018 through 2023 alone, an employee making $50,000 would be making over $5,000 more in salary if the 3% increase had been issued for each of these years. After the last three biennium, public employees working for the State are feeling a little demoralized, at least in my department.

Ultimately, there is something appealing about working for the citizens of the State of North Dakota in my humble opinion. Perhaps that’s what keeps the demoralization from being complete. In my role, the work I do has a direct benefit for the hard-working farmers in this State. My work has meaning and purpose when farmers and citizens are the direct beneficiaries of it. If I had decided to take the private sector job offered to me a couple years ago, my salary increase would have been pretty substantial. But then the direction of my work and effort would have changed to helping out a couple of guys, living who knows where, make a little more money than they already do. I’m not trying to begrudge people who work in the private sector; obviously the more money the company makes the more money you do if justice has any say. The point is a great majority of public workers have a different mindset and mission when it comes to the nature of their work.

In closing, I simply ask the elected Legislators of this fine State, not only to consider the 6% raise for the next two fiscal years, but to actually do it. This act would send a message of appreciation to public employees, make up for past losses, and retain highly skilled employees whose mindsets and mission might otherwise change. And after this biennium, perhaps a brave congressman or congresswoman, will introduce legislation to freeze the annual pay raises at 4% regardless of budget influxes whether up or down. Sounds pretty crazy to some, but how much money is the State spending on finding, hiring, and training new employees every two years? Not only for open positions which need filling, but for new job openings as well. The job market is only going to get more competitive in the future, and the marketplace for employees looks very bullish. Will our State really be able to afford the costs of not retaining trained, skilled, and experienced employees?