Fund Our Raises

We are the frontline of high quality public services

Tell legislators to close the revolving door of public services.

Our communities and families deserve quality public services with career employees. Our pay stubs remind us every payday that we are bringing home less than we were before the great recession.

At the same time, our housing, healthcare, retirement and general cost of living has risen dramatically. Since the great recession, the consumer Price Index (CPI) has increased by 20%, while our cost of living adjustments (COLAS) at 10% have not kept up.

The state’s own salary survey in 2016 found that 99% of state employee job classes are paid below market rate.

Although our pay has stagnated the demand for our services hasn’t. In 2001 there were nearly six million people in Washington and about 64,000 general government state employees. Today, Washington’s population has grown to more than 7 million and general government state employees have decreased to less than 63,000.

A bigger population and less workers results in dramatic workload increases as we meet the demand for the vital services with less resources.

Years of substandard pay, heavy workloads, and underfunded services have created a recruitment and retention problem that undermines the safety of our public and the high quality of services the people of Washington need and deserve.

Among many other job classes the state faces significant challenges in recruiting and retaining health and safety inspectors who guarantee safe workplaces and social workers who protect our most vulnerable citizens.

The governor has included our raises in his budget and asserts that our contracts are financially feasible. Now the legislature must fund it. Unfortunately, leadership in the Republican-controlled Senate denies that state employee pay increases have fallen behind cost of living increases and they are threatening to block our raises and contract.

We can’t let this happen. It’s not just about us and our families. We know that if the state continues to offer substandard pay and doesn’t address overburdened workloads the citizens of Washington will not get the quality of services we believe in and that they need and deserve.

PLEASE USE OUR FORM TO SEND EMAIL to your legislator asking for their commitment to fund state employee contracts.