June 14, 2024

by Michael R. Wickline | Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has authorized a one-time 3% market adjustment pay increase for state government’s executive branch employees that will go into effect within several days, Sanders announced Friday.

The Republican governor also announced she has authorized a 1% base salary merit raise for executive branch employees who have met expectations in their recent performance evaluations, and a 3% base salary merit raise for those employees who have exceeded expectations in their performance evaluations.

Sanders spokeswoman Alexa Henning said the merit raises will go into effect July 7.

In a letter to state employees, the governor wrote “We all recognize that our state’s current pay plan is imperfect, which is why I launched the Arkansas Forward initiative and plan to approach the 2025 legislative session with an overhauled pay plan that better rewards performance and keeps us competitive in employee compensation.

“In the meantime, the pay increases announced are recognition for your past year of hard work,” Sanders wrote.

The executive branch has 22,419 employees with an average annual salary of about $50,667 a year, said Brooke Hollowoa, a spokesman for the state Department of Transformation and Shared Services.

Kay Barnhill, director of the state Office of Personnel Management, said late Friday afternoon that “We don’t have the impact on the average state salary, but we can provide that information after implementation.”

The 3% market adjustment raise will cost about $19 million in state general revenue and this includes the collapse of the grades 1-4 into the grade 5 salary range, she said. She said the state general revenue cost for the merit increases is about $8 million. State departments already have this money budgeted so there will be no need for increases in each department, she said.

John Bridges, executive director of the Arkansas State Employees Association, said Friday in a written statement that “I would like to thank the Governor for rewarding state employees for all their hard work this past year.

“Model employees will either be receiving a 4% or 6% raise in July and we are appreciative,” she said. “Our association is eager to work with the Governor and the legislative body on step number two in the plan to reduce turnover and modernize state government as we overhaul the current pay plan for state employees.”

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