ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 26, 1996 TAG: 9603260060
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
AT VIRGINIA TECH, staff and faculty say they appreciate the raise, but not the way they're getting it. It's good to finally get a decent pay raise, Virginia Tech employees say.
The problem is, it doesn't exactly feel like a decent pay raise.
That's because, under the legislature's recently passed plan to boost state workers' pay by 4.35 percent and faculty salaries by 6 percent, some workers could end up taking home the same amount of money in 1997 that they'll earn this year.
How so?
Because workers will get 23 paychecks next year instead of the usual 24.
"I've heard a lot about the issue, which is, generally, this is one raw deal," said Tom Sherman, president of Virginia Tech's Faculty Senate.
Lawmakers explain that the paycheck isn't disappearing. But for the first eight months of 1997, paydays will be shifted back a day or two each pay period, saving $76 million. By next fall, the system will be back to the usual paydays on the first and 16th of every month.
And the raises will show up in paychecks starting this Dec. 1, when they go into effect. By 1998, annual pay increases will be evident.
"The problem we get into is, nobody likes the fact their pay period is going to be moved back," said Wyatt Sasser, president of Tech's Staff Senate. "Basically, the state employees are financing their raise they get on December 1, 1996.
"Everyone I've talked to, they appreciate the raise; they don't appreciate the way they're getting it," he said.
The plan to shift paychecks started with Gov. George Allen's blue-ribbon strike force, said John Mahone, the state's deputy secretary of finance.
The idea is to convert the system from one where workers are sometimes paid in advance of actually performing work to one where they're paid after they've performed the work, just as is done in private business, legislative aides say.
When he unveiled his budget in December, Allen proposed giving workers a one-time bonus at the end of this December. But legislators hammering out the budget decided to fund a raise that would be part of a worker's base pay. Future raises and retirement would be built upon that higher base pay.
"I think it's much better to get a salary increase than a bonus," said Del. Earl Dickinson, D-Louisa County, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. "It's in the base, it counts toward retirement."
While some employees have been aware for some weeks about the way the raises were being financed, Tech's executive vice president, Minnis Ridenour, issued a written explanation last week that apparently opened some eyes. In it, he included the hypothetical earnings for the year for two typical Tech workers.
Under the new plan, a staff employee earning $24,000 would actually take home $65.63 less in 1997 than he would this year, according to Ridenour's memo. A faculty member who makes $36,000 and is looking forward to a 6 percent raise would take home $421.80 more in '97, or about 1.2 percent more.
"I'm not wild about it at all," said Del. Jim Shuler, D-Blacksburg, who said his phone has been ringing off the hook over the matter.
"It's creating a headache for people, especially on a fixed, month-to-month situation. In the final analysis, to get the raise, which is a true raise, this is what it's going to take to get it."
Shuler said he voted for the raises in the state budget bill, as recommended by the legislative money committees, because "either you're going to support a salary increase or you're not going to have the money to give a salary increase." Legislators also approved a 2 percent raise for fiscal 1998, and "it's my hope we can increase that," Shuler said.
Back on campus, where morale has yo-yoed over state budgetary issues for years, new disillusionment is growing.
"I think if we'd have gotten the bonus, it would have been a fair break over to the next raise," said Wint Barton, who runs Tech's audio-visual service. "This is a raise that does not exist. You will not see a pay raise until 1998, and then it's minimal."
Paul Metz, vice president of the Faculty Senate, agreed that the bonus at least made sense.
"I think the hard fact is, every Virginia Tech employee can expect two straight paychecks in which a mortgage payment has to be made," he said.
And Richard Rich, head of Tech's political science department, said he's worried about the raises from a policy point of view.
"To me, the policy issue is this: The state said it was trying to respond to a drop in Virginia faculty salaries to the bottom third nationally and voted us a decent pay raise for which we are all very grateful," he said.
"But this administrative adjustment and pay date and loss of one pay period means that in the short term what looked like a 6 percent increase is going to turn out to be something more like a great deal less, and will do nothing to close that gap.
"The policy problem is not actually being solved."
LENGTH: Medium: 91 linesby CNB