This raise didn’t just fall from the sky, and the next one won’t either!
[August 2022] HHSC’s announcement of substantial pay raises for many positions, effective August 1, is an important step and a significant victory for TSEU members. Union members have engaged in an all-out campaign of organizing and mobilizing to make our pay a priority for state leaders. Raising minimum salary levels between 10% to 25% will give many frontline HHSC employees a reprieve from dire financial straits caused by the Texas Legislature’s failure to provide across-the-board pay raises to state employees. As noted in HHSC’s announcement, not every position is included in this pay raise. The problem with targeted pay raises is that many employees are excluded from raises despite their direct role in keeping the state agencies and local offices functioning.
TSEU members will continue organizing and mobilizing to win equivalent pay raises for excluded positions, in addition to campaigning for an across the board raise for all employees. Legislators last approved an across the board pay raise in 2013. Since then, the standard of living for state employees has steadily declined, with the continuing inflation spike making it even harder to make ends meet. Every state employee is in need of a real pay raise to make up for the last 10 years of stagnant pay.
Get involved and make your voice heard! Legislators want to use previous targeted pay raises as an excuse to not fund across-the-board raises. We can’t let elected officials and state leaders off the hook. State employees need and deserve an across-the-board pay raise, and will continue to push the legislature to fund it. Sign up your coworkers today!
