California state worker unions eye salary increases, telework as contract negotiations begin
Salary increases, longevity pay and telework policies are all on the bargaining table this year as California prepares to begin negotiating with seven bargaining units representing over 50,000 state workers.
Leaders of bargaining units hope that California’s improved financial position, compared to last year’s massive budget deficit, will translate into salary increases beyond the typical 2-3% adjustments. Labor groups said substantial pay increases are necessary to address the rising cost-of-living in California and to recruit more civil servants.
For the union representing over 10,000 state engineers, a bargaining priority is to ensure California agrees to pay employees fair wages that make the state an employer of choice for workers with other public and private job opportunities, said Ted Toppin, the executive director of the Professional Engineers in California Government.
“What that looks like, at least from my perspective, is something that recognizes the inflationary environment that has existed in California for the last three or four years and how it is contributing to a high cost of living,” Toppin said..
Nationally, the cost of living was up 2.9% in the 12 months ending in December, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Despite California’s financial woes in 2024, last year’s contracts netted some wins for civil servants. State scientists won longevity pay and salary hikes their union had long demanded. California Highway Patrol offices secured three more years of raises.
There remains a good deal of uncertainty around the economy and the state budget after President Donald Trump attempted to pause federal funding earlier in the week, said Tim Yeung, a public sector labor law expert.
“Even though we don’t expect huge cuts, I don’t think that we’re in a surplus position where there’s a lot of free money to give out,” Yeung said.
He predicted that the state will be cautious during negotiations. Unions can expect to secure cost of living adjustments and salary increases between 2% and 3%, Yeung said, but he said it was unlikely that the state would agree to much more.
The governor’s office referred questions to the Finance Department.
H.D. Palmer, a Finance spokesperson, said the department did not have a further comment beyond what was included in the budget preview earlier this month.
The current 2025-26 budget proposal includes $918 million for salary bumps and increasing health care costs for active and retired employees that the state previously agreed to. Those pay increases vary by bargaining unit.
The California Department of Human Resources will negotiate collective bargaining agreements with the following unions:
▪ California Attorneys Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers in State Employment (unit 2)
▪ California Correctional Peace Officer’s Association (unit 6)
▪ Professional Engineers in California Government (unit 9)
▪ International Union of Operating Engineers (unit 13)
▪ Union of American Physicians and Dentists (unit 16)
▪ California Association of Psychiatric Technicians (unit 18)
▪ American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (unit 19)
Neil Flood, the new president of CCPOA, which represents correctional officers, said the union does not publicly discuss specifics about negotiations with the state.
Higher wages to fill vacancies
For psychiatric technicians working in departments across California in state hospitals and developmental centers, one of the biggest challenges facing workers is a chronic shortage of psychiatric technicians, said Eric Soto, president of the California Association of Psychiatric Technicians.
Stagnated wages are too low to attract enough healthcare workers to fill vacant positions in the state, he said, which is contributing to a lack of available services in state hospitals. The vacancy rate for psychiatric technicians at some state hospitals was as high as 30% in July 2024, according to data shared by CAPT.
“We want to encourage more folks to see civil service as a career,” Soto said. “And part of that is increased pay and recruitment efforts.”
Soto said California works with organizations that contract medical professionals to meet the staffing needs of California hospitals and facilities. During COVID-19, the state began relying more heavily on contracted psychiatric technicians to meet demand, Soto said.
In the years since, the proportion of public-private staffing hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels, he said.
“You’re basically outsourcing union jobs from the state to these private businesses,” Soto said. CAPT plans to address the issue in bargaining this year but did not share how the union plans to do so.
Toppin, with the engineers union, is also hoping to recruit and retain more engineers to civil service through more competitive compensation packages.
While some departments have vacancies for engineering positions, Toppin said the state is competing with private companies and other local governments for a small pool of qualified engineers.
Toppin noted that taxes on gasoline and federal infrastructure legislation has left California with billions of dollars for construction projects. In 2023, the lobbying group American Council of Engineering Companies sent a letter to the Biden administration warning that the country doesn’t have enough engineers to complete the work called for in the federal bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act.
The shortage of engineers means some projects are delayed, Toppin said.
“It means you don’t build projects, you don’t grow the economy, you don’t create thousands of construction and related jobs, and you don’t generate tax revenue,” Toppin said. “It’s really a losing cycle for everyone.”
Preventing departures
The union representing state attorneys and hearing officers is looking to increase compensation for its members to prevent experienced lawyers from leaving state service for other public sector jobs with higher salaries.
A compensation survey conducted in 2022 by the California Department of Human Resources found that attorneys employed by the state had salaries 25% lower than those of private sector lawyers. Local government attorneys’ salaries were 9% higher than wages paid by the state.
Timothy O’Connor, the president of the California Attorneys Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers in State Employment, said the state needs to “chip away” at the gap between public and private compensation.
“The state cannot say, ‘Budget crisis, we don’t have any money,’ and then turn around and appropriate millions of dollars to outside law firms. That just doesn’t make sense,” O’Connor said.
O’Connor said the issue isn’t a question of the availability of funds — it’s where state leaders have wanted to divert the funds.
Since Trump won the presidency in November, California state government leaders have been quick to carve out more funding for the attorney general’s office — the agency with the largest number of CASE members — to prepare the state for legal fights with the federal government. That funding’s approval is before the Legislature.
CASE has criticized the state’s hiring of private law firms to handle cases brought by California against fossil fuel companies for their role in downplaying the dangers of climate change.
O’Connor said the state should be reallocating that money to better compensate attorneys already working for the state.
“They’re going to have to find the money and make this a priority,” he said.
Telework, mandatory overtime and more
Mandatory overtime is another issue facing psychiatric technicians and other state employees staffing 24/7 facilities. When an employee is unable to come in to work the technician on duty can be required to work overtime.
Soto said this can pose safety issues when workers become tired after working eight hour shifts back to back.
CAPT secured some provisions related to mandatory overtime during the last contract, such as limits to how many times a month employees can be asked to work additional hours. Soto plans to negotiate further protections this year around the policy and other safety related issues.
In addition to salary increases, the union representing state attorneys hopes to secure geographic differentials for employees living in expensive parts of California, longevity pay for experienced attorneys with institutional knowledge and better telework agreements for those members who were called back to offices last year.
Other than when attorneys need to be present in court, O’Connor said most CASE members can do the majority of their work remotely. Because the state can’t compete with private law firms’ more generous salaries, O’Connor said California should be trying to attract attorneys with desirable telework benefits.
Yeung said there continues to be a chasm between rank-and-file members and management over telework attitudes. Management has the perspective that employees need to be physically in the workplace to maintain collaboration and manage workers’ performance, he said.
“A lot of places that have hybrid work schedules will probably continue,” Yeung said. “But I don’t see going back to being fully remote.”
This story was originally published January 30, 2025 at 9:50 AM.
