Governor Jerry Brown's recent contract with California's highway engineers list some pretty nice perks for the workers who would be in charge of handling the workload brought on and funded by the gas tax that Brown backed last year.
The longtime road designers, planners and project managers would be seeing a general wage increase of 4.5 percent immediately and 4 percent next July according to a two-year agreement between Brown and Professional Engineers in California Government.
Engineers with more than 20 years of experience can expect to see an extra steadily increased raise.
The proposed contract’s longevity increases are:
· 2 percent for engineers with 20 years of experience or more as of July 1, 2018
· 3 percent for engineers with 21 years of experience or more as of July 1, 2019
· 4 percent for engineers with 22 years of experience or more as of July 1, 2020
· And 5.5 percent for engineers with 23 years of experience or more as of July 1, 2021
The Brown administration estimates the contract will cost $93 million in the current budget year, and $171 million next year.
Caltrans is reportedly building up its staff after a wave of retirements in order to complete the projects that the gas tax will produce. That is, if voters do not repeal the gas and car tax in November.
The raise for the engineers is supposed to be an incentive for the employees to stay and work for as long as needed.
“The piece I like to call experienced pay is there to address a real problem. Those experienced folks are retiring and there isn’t really a cadre in the middle to deliver SB 1 projects,” Ted Toppin, PECG’s executive director, told the sacbee. “Hopefully this agreement will keep those people on the job delivering highways, schools, hospitals and every other type of infrastructure project.”
The Legislature must approve the contract for employees to get the raises listed in the agreement, additionally PECG's members must vote on it next week.
Carl DeMaio with Reform California had more to say about this, listen to it below.
Photo: Getty Images