Delays in raises for state attorneys highlight persistent flaws in California’s payroll system
When Tim O’Connor began receiving frustrated messages, complaining that California state agencies had neglected to award raises secured two years earlier, he reassured people, “I understand, it happened to me too.”
O’Connor, the president of California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers in State Employment, was scheduled to receive a 4.5% raise in July. As a civil litigator for the State Compensation Insurance Fund, O’Connor reached the top of his salary range over a year ago, which meant he was eligible for the nearly five percent increase in pay. But when his July paycheck arrived it was no bigger than the previous months.
Hundreds of CASE members experienced a similar shock, O’Connor said. While many of those payroll issues have been corrected by individual departments, some have still not fixed the issue, he said. Beyond the nominal dollar amount, “It’s more the principle of the thing,” the attorney union president said.
“A lot of our members feel that we are underpaid compared to other government sectors,” O’Connor said. “So at least pay us what you agreed to pay us on time.”
The payroll issues impacted member’s confidence in the union, O’Connor said. There is no excuse that this regular-occurring error hasn’t been corrected, he added.
State departments acknowledged that some employees’ scheduled raises did not show up on their July paycheck. Many of the departments worked to get that additional pay to workers days after July 30, when monthly payments went out.
“We understand the concerns being raised, and we’re working to resolve the situation,” a statement from CalHR’s Communications Office said. “We know departments are working hard to ensure employees receive their corrected amount in a separate pay warrant.”
A slight delay “because of manual entry and review” caused 78 California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation employees to receive their pay late, according to the department.
And at the California Department of General Services, 115 employees had to wait until Aug. 2 to receive their July raise.
O’Connor said departments should have been prepared for the scheduled salary adjustments, which stemmed from CASE’s 2022 contract with the state.
The California Department of Human Resources sent out a “Pay Letter” on July 17, informing departments of changes to some employees’ salaries. The personnel department said the pay letter could only be released after the State Controller’s Office made updates to the massive payroll system which provides paychecks to the nearly 300,000 workers across state civil service and the California State University system.
Individual HR offices within departments are responsible for keying in pay adjustments that affect smaller groups, like the CASE members eligible for the 4.5% salary increase. The July 17 letter left departments only a few days to manually adjust employees salaries before the Controller’s Office’s cutoff date of July 22.
“The current system does not allow for this to occur far in advance of the changes,” CalHR said in a statement. “Departments are advised at forums and through other communications to prepare for the items that must be keyed separately and are made aware of the short turnaround time.”
On Thursday, Bismarck Obando, the press secretary for the Controller’s Office, said the office had processed all of the salary adjustments that departments had manually entered into the payroll system.
The “current system” dates back to the 1950s when it was first developed. Seventy years ago the state employed about 40% fewer workers and didn’t engage in collective bargaining, which led to salary adjustments like CASE’s, until the late 1970s.
O’Connor said the “Vietnam-era SCO system” regularly results in delays, particularly when issuing contract raises. The state’s operating engineers’ union filed a grievance over late pay raises in 2017. In 2019, CASE threatened to sue for similar delays.
CalHR noted that there are designated days when additional pay, like the July salary adjustment, can be distributed to state workers in a separate check.
The amount of money CASE members should have expected as a raise, varied based on individuals’ salary range. Employees classified as Attorney III, who earn nearly $15,000 a month at the top of the salary range, should expect to see roughly $670 more each pay period. CASE estimated 1,500 members were eligible for the salary adjustment.
CASE said members affected by the delay worked in departments across the state, including the California Public Utilities Commission, the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, the Department of Health Care Services, the Department of Industrial Relations, the Department of Toxic Substances Control, the Department of Water Resources, the California Department of Education, the Fair Political Practices Commission, the Office of Tax Appeals, the State Compensation Insurance Fund, the State Water Resources Control Board, and the California Department of Technology.
CASE said after contacting the departments, all had responded with the exception of DTSC as of Friday afternoon.
O’Connor said since the initial delay, there have been errors with the checks meant to correct the delayed raises. Additionally, some workers not eligible for the salary adjustment received the raise, he said, which will force them to jump through hoops to get that money back to the state. CASE said that DHCS was working on correcting the erroneously issued salary adjustments.
“It’s very alarming that this continues to happen in this day and age,” O’Connor said.
Aware of the aging system, the state launched a reinvention effort in 2016. The California State Payroll System Project won’t be completed until at least 2028. Under the new system, state workers could be paid on a more typical bi-weekly basis rather than once a month.
“This project will modernize the human resource management, travel advance and expense management and payroll systems that is used by 300,000 state government employees in order to provide accurate and timely personnel and payroll service,” said Obando.
This story was originally published August 11, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
