A new contract agreement would provide 7.5% in raises to California state engineers over the next three years plus paid family leave at no cost to them.

The Professional Engineers in California Government reached the three-year deal with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration on Friday. The tentative agreement, which would add about $458 million in state spending by the end of its term, requires approval from union members and the Legislature to take effect.

The 12,600 rank-and-file employees the union represents would receive a 2.5% raise retroactive to July 1, plus a 3% raise next year and a 2% raise in 2024, according to a summary posted on the California Human Resources Department website.

The agreement also would give the engineers a variety of family leave in July 2023 that has been available only to supervisors and managers in state government.

Titled Nonindustrial Disability Insurance, the new benefit provides up to six weeks of partially paid leave for workers with new children or seriously ill family members.

While nearly all private-sector employees in California have been eligible for the state’s landmark paid family leave program since 2004, many state employees are not. For them, it’s subject to collective bargaining, and the only union that obtained the benefit, opting to pay about 1% of salary for it, was SEIU Local 1000.

The new variety of family leave was given to supervisors and managers in 2019. It pays 50% of a worker’s salary, or up to 100% if supplemented with annual leave time, and employees don’t have to make contributions toward the program.

“It is an important benefit that our members have sought for a long time, to be able to deliver it without a payroll cost is groundbreaking,” said Ted Toppin, the union’s executive director.

The engineers’ union reached its deal for the leave on the day the state attorneys’ union secured the same benefit.

Most California state engineers work for Caltrans. Those covered by the union earned an average of about $114,000 per year in 2020, according to the most recent wage survey from the state Human Resources Department. With pension benefits and other benefits factored in, the average total compensation rises to about $192,000.

The contract agreement also makes longevity pay available to engineers three years earlier, providing a 2% bump at 17 years, 3% at 18, 4% at 19 and 5.5% at 20.

It sets aside $24 million to be provided to a group of about 2,800 mid-range engineers in 2023 after the state and the union work out details, and increases a range of pay differentials to cover expenses such as footwear and long-term assignments.

Toppin said the group had been pushing for more, but reached the agreement to make sure employees got a raise this year. The agreement’s timing gives legislators a chance to vote on it by Aug. 31, before they break until the next session begins in December.

“It’s a modest deal,” Toppin said Monday. “Obviously the PECG team pushed for higher pay increases because inflation would seem to warrant it and the recruitment and retention needs of the state to bring on engineers to deliver on federal and state infrastructure projects are going to be huge.”

A summary sent to the union’s members said the Newsom administration hasn’t agreed to any one-year general salary increases of more than 3% for everyone in a bargaining unit, although the Governor’s Office has given more larger wage increases to select groups.

This story was originally published August 23, 2022 at 11:11 AM.