TSEU members made their voices heard at the Capitol, and across the state; winning the first real across-the-board raise in years! This pay raise did not just fall from the sky, TSEU MEMBERS MADE IT HAPPEN!
Pay raises, which will begin in July, have been approved for the next two years and are a significant step towards rebuilding state employees’ standards of living. The $6,000 raise (5% with a $3,000 minimum each year of the biennium) is the largest across the board raise in over 40 years. Despite state legislators’ failure to heed urgent calls by union members to expand the raise to $10,000 and to include University workers the raise will help thousands of state employees whose pay has been stagnant despite record breaking inflation.
Legislators know we needed a $10,000 raise to address chronic turnover. The State Auditor’s Office identified a $10,000 raise as a key benchmark to keep experienced staff. Every Texan’s survey of employees similarly found that a more significant raise would increase retention rates.
TSEU members will continue leading the movement for better pay and benefits for all employees and retirees. With an unprecedented surplus of over $32 billion more could have been done. Legislators excluded university employees from the pay raise and did not provide any pension increase for ERS retirees. The work has already begun to hold legislators accountable for their actions and inactions, and to elect better ones!
Primary election season begins in the fall of this year, with candidates and office holders seeking our endorsement and asking for us to help their campaign. Rest assured, TSEU members screening these candidates will be seeking out champions for state employees and retirees, not candidates telling us what we want to hear.
In 2022 and early 2023, targeted pay raises for specific agencies and positions were
announced as agency officials scrambled to address the long-term problems caused by years of stagnant pay. The turnover crisis – which was made worse by record levels of inflation but was years in the making – was finally receiving the attention it deserved, although the use of targeted pay raises instead of across the board raises left many experienced employees behind. The $6,000 across the board raise includes all agency employees but maintains the wider pay gap between positions included in the targeted raises and positions excluded from those targeted raises.