California state worker pay database updated with 2019 raises, promotions

The Sacramento Bee has updated its State Worker salary database with new data up to this month.

The update incorporates raises for about 46,000 workers in five state worker unions who received pay raises through new contracts last year. The database also includes new job titles and salaries for people who were promoted.

Investment experts and leaders at CalPERS and CalSTRS remained at the top of the list for pay in 2019. California’s rules for paying people in those jobs differ from the rest of the state’s civil service, to enable the retirement funds to hire in the competitive world of finance.

Yu Ben Meng, the Chief Investment Officer at CalPERS, was the state’s top-paid employee, making about $1.5 million. Meng’s base salary was about $646,000 and the rest was incentive pay.

The CalPERS board authorized an increase in pay for the position before hiring Meng in late 2018, after an outside consultant found the fund’s compensation package was less than for many comparable funds, which offered pay and incentive packages of more than $2 million.

Health care workers, particularly those in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, also topped the list.

The unions that negotiated new contracts and received raises were the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, California State Law Enforcement Association, California Association of Highway Patrolmen, a unit of the International Union of Operating Engineers and the California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers in State Employment.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration also reached new contracts with SEIU Local 1000 and with the California Association of Psychiatric Technicians. Salary increases for those unions go into effect this year.