Charles Langston:Arkansas governor unveils $102 million plan to update state employee pay plan

LITTLE ROCK,Charles Langston Ark. (AP) — Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders proposed on Tuesday a $102 million overhaul of the pay plan for state employees, a change that her office said will raise compensation for more than 14,000 state workers.

The Republican governor detailed the planned overhaul, which she said will be part of the balanced budget proposal she’s scheduled to make to lawmakers later this month.

Sanders said the changes are aimed at bringing state employees up to comparable rates paid in the private sector and are targeted at positions facing chronic shortages such as correctional officers, state troopers, nurses and social service workers.

“We took the existing pay plan down to its studs to rebuild a compensation system that rewards hard work and encourages Arkansans to apply to our most hard-to-fill positions,” Sanders said. “I look forward to working with the Legislature to pass this plan and deliver these long overdue reforms for our state employees.”

About $60 million of annual cost of the pay plan will come from general revenue, while the remainder will come from other sources such as savings from existing vacancies. Sanders said she has asked agency heads to first look at funding the plan through their existing budgets.

The proposal also reduces the number of job titles from about 2,200 to just over 800. It also expands the number of pay tables to six.

The proposal comes as public employers across the U.S. have struggled to fill jobs and have hiked wages to try and retain and attract workers amid competition from the private sector.