The House of Representatives and the Senate approved wage increases for state employees amounting to roughly 4.5 percent, part of a wage re-opener included in a contract passed in 2022 as part of a $1.9 billion deal between Gov. Ned Lamont and the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC).
According to the Office of Fiscal Analysis, the 2.5 percent general wage increase, and 2 percent step increase for roughly 46,000 state workers will amount to increased costs across all appropriated funds of $153.9 million in 2025 and $183 million in 2026.
The wage increases are in line with the three years of wage increases approved in 2022, and lawmakers knew the wage re-opener was coming. According to the fiscal note, there was $190 million held in reserve for salary adjustments, meaning there will be only $36 million remaining in the salary reserve account for 2026.
While the original 2022 agreement was approved by some Republicans, arguments in the Senate on the wage re-opener fell along typical party lines, with Democrats saying the increases are needed to recruit and retain good workers, while Republicans expressed concerns about rising state costs that could impact taxpayers.
“We need to be able to pay our workers,” Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, said on the Senate floor, noting a shortage of nurses in Connecticut’s Department of Correction. “This wage agreement is not only fair, it is just, it is right, it is what we should do. Not only that, we thought ahead and put the money in the biennial budget, which almost everybody around this circle voted for. There is no reason to not pass this contract.”
Sen. Ryan Fazio, R-Greenwich, argued that state employee pay increases have outpaced the private sector, saying that private sector workers have seen a 17 percent pay increase over the last four years, while state employees have seen a cumulative rise of “over 30 percent,” including state employee bonuses.
“We also need to make sure that we structure compensation for state employees such that it does not overburden regular families, the taxpayers of this state with too high a bill,” Fazio said.
Debate in the House was shorter with Rep. Michael D’Agostino, D-Stamford, fielding questions from Representatives Tammi Nuccio, R-Tolland, and Holly Cheeseman, R-East Lyme, before the bill went to a successful, bipartisan vote of 106-44.
The vote in the Senate was divided 24-12 along party lines with arguments over politicizing the vote, respect for state employees, and money for nonprofits, which have absorbed jobs done by state employees without similar increases to reimbursements.
Gov. Lamont praised passage of the contract in a press release, saying the agreement will help ensure Connecticut has a “top quality state workforce.”
“State employees deliver many vital services to the residents of Connecticut, such as educating our children, protecting our families, ensuring the roads on which we drive are safe, and taking care of our most vulnerable residents,” Lamont said. “This wage increase helps ensure that we have a top-quality state workforce that can fill these important roles. I thank the General Assembly and everyone involved in negotiating this reasonable wage adjustment that balances the needs of our state workers and taxpayers.”
The Lamont administration will soon have to begin negotiations with SEBAC again, as the wage re-opener is only for the last year of a four-year contract, which will expire in July of 2025. In addition, the umbrella contract governing healthcare and retirement benefits for state employees will expire in 2027.
That agreement, first signed by Gov. John Rowland in 1997, was originally a 20-year deal, but was extended twice during Gov. Dannel Malloy’s administration in exchange for healthcare and retirement givebacks during budget crises.
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