To address high turnover and chronic understaffing in state agencies, Alaska lawmakers appropriated $1,000,000 in public funds to conduct a salary study to ensure the State is keeping pace with comparable industries in both the public and private sectors.

Based on reports received by ASEA, the salary study was completed in June/July of 2024. In August, the State amended the original contract with instructions for the Segal Company to issue a “new version” of the report. That revised report was due October 31, 2024. To our knowledge, no one other than the governor and his administration has reviewed this study, funded by the legislature.

In response to Freedom of Information Act Requests, the Governor refused to release the reports claiming they were “drafts” and a finalized report would not be available until approximately midway through the 2025 legislative session. On January 10, 2025, after being told that he could not refuse to release “draft” reports, the Governor now claims all drafts have been destroyed. See former Daily News Reporter, now blogger, Dermot Cole, who is sharing that Governor Dunleavy ‘no longer has any copies of’ the salary study. This news is truly shocking.

The last salary study of classified state positions was conducted in 2009. That analysis is more than fifteen years old and ASEA is understandably concerned that the Administration is censoring new information that aligns wages for state employees with comparators in both public and private sectors.

The answer to Alaska’s high turnover and chronic understaffing is not rocket science. The State must pay people fairly for their work, pay them when and what they’re due, treat those employees with respect, and provide them with a dignified retirement. This anticipated salary study is a critical piece of this equation.

As we continue to gather information about the status of the final salary study and the prior “draft” reports, please join lawmakers and public employee union leaders who have been calling on the State to release the entire study.

Please sign this petition to help us demonstrate that there is tremendous interest and motivation for the State to release the salary study to the public ASAP!