State of Alaska has begun an extensive examination of the salaries of state employees to determine if low pay is causing constant hiring issues within the Executive Branch.
On Thursday on Thursday, on Thursday, the Alaska Department of Administration released a request for proposal for an outside contractor to conduct an analysis of state pay in Alaska and paying in the private market, as well as the pay of other government agencies.
The analysis will cover various job categories with positions such as archaeologists, guards in prison taxi drivers, tax auditors and the individuals who are responsible for regulating precision of the gas pumps as well as scales at the grocery store.
A contract worth $800,000 will be released on November. 15 and the request requires the final report to be presented before June 30, 2024. This is the day that concludes the fiscal year of the state. The report will be able to allow any recommendations to be integrated into the budget for the next year.
In the spring session of the legislature the lawmakers heard a lot of evidence about state agencies with a lack of staff and voted to budget $1 million for the survey.
In addition, the problems of hiring persist all through this summer.
At the time of writing the executive branch was occupied with 15650 jobs, while 13,273 of them were filled. That’s 85.4 percent.
In the past, officials from the state have declared a salary to be competitive when it is higher by 65% or more than state’s public and private sector competitors. Anything that is at least 10 percentage points higher or below that level is classified as “misaligned,” the RFP declares.
Anchorage wages are regarded as the standard for determining the measurement.
This article first appeared in Alaska Beacon and is republished here with permission.
