SACRAMENTO, Calif.—The California state Senate is giving all its employees pay raises just one year after laying off several dozen employees due to financial problems, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press.
The raises for about 1,000 employees are possible because of last year’s “prudent and necessary cuts,” according to the memo to employees from Senate Secretary Daniel Alvarez.
They include a 4 percent cost-of-living increase for employees who are paid less than about $150,000 a year. Those paid up to $178,000 get 2 percent raises, while those paid more than that get 1 percent increases.
They are the first raises in nearly eight years, according to the memo, which is dated Monday.
It does not project the total cost to taxpayers and Senate officials declined to immediately provide that information. Officials told the AP to file a request under the Legislative Open Records Act for that and other details about the increases.
The Assembly is not giving across-the-board raises this year and hasn’t since 2007, said spokesman John Casey. However, Assembly members can give their employees merit raises if they have money in their individual office budgets and if the employee has not received a raise in at least two years.
Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, announced a year ago that he was cutting 39 out of nearly 1,000 staff positions.
