To stanch turnover, state prisons raise pay of 1,684

The Arkansas Department of Correction gave salary increases to nearly 1,700 correctional officers at the start of the new fiscal year in order to recruit higher-quality employees and retain employees who have the most experience working in state prisons, according to payroll data and a department spokesman.

The pay raises, ranging from $45 to $6,674 a year, came as a result of changes to the department’s pay scale, effective July 1, the start of fiscal 2017 for the state, as well as longevity increases for employees with more than five years of experience. The total cost of the pay increases was $1.78 million, and they will be paid for by previous salary savings accrued by the department, according to spokesman Solomon Graves.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s general-revenue budget for fiscal 2017 does not include cost-of-living raises for state employees but does allow merit-pay raises.

According to the data provided by the Correction Department, total employee turnover was around 24 percent over the past year and ranged from 30 percent turnover among the lowest-ranked correctional officers to 4 percent for majors.

A department memo sent to employees June 17 said the Arkansas Legislative Council had approved the new pay scale, which boosts the base wages of new employees working at prisons that are in the lowest three of the

agency’s four security levels, called tiers.

To prevent tenured employees from earning the same as new hires, the department added the longevity increase, which ranged from 1 percent for employees with five years’ experience to 5 percent for those with more than 25 years of experience. The longevity increase was given to 1,272 uniformed officers and cost $1.26 million.

About 490 current employees earning less than the new base wage received a bump to the new scale’s higher wage, Graves said, with such raises costing $527,391. Some people received both raises, and in all 1,684 people got a pay boost.

The state’s prisons range from Tier 1 minimum-security facilities to Tier 4, the maximum-security SuperMax Unit at the Varner Unit in Lincoln County. Uniformed officers of the same rank who work in higher-security prisons receive more pay than similarly ranked officers at lower-security prisons.

Increases to base pay were higher for Tier 1 and Tier 2 prisons — 6 percent and 4 percent, respectively — than for Tier 3 prisons, which saw a 1 percent increase. Tier 4 officers did not receive an increase in base pay.

Two prisons, the Wrightsville and Hawkins units, were reclassified from Tier 3 to Tier 2. Current employees at those facilities will continue to receive the same pay, while new hires will start at the lower rate, according to the June memo.

Under the new tier structure, annual salaries range from $26,824 for a minimum-security correctional officer to $51,444 for a major at the Varner SuperMax, according to the memo.

“Our tier change is focused on our ability to recruit more qualified applicants.” Graves said. “The job pool is more competitive.”

Graves said increases in base pay were focused on facilities where the department has had the most difficulty recruiting and retaining officers.

“What we have found ourselves in is a situation where a tenured officer might have the same salary as someone out of the academy,” Graves said.

John Bridges, the assistant executive director with the Arkansas State Employees Association, said the Department of Correction has one of the highest employee turnover rates in state government, and he praised the department for adding an increase in tenured salaries to go in hand with higher starting wages.

“They’re trying to slow down their turnover and keep employees, but it’s kind of a statewide department problem as well. Every department has needs,” Bridges said.

An analysis of the state’s general-accounting system used for the payroll of 28,372 state employees found that 1,910 received some kind of a pay raise at the start of fiscal 2017. The 1,684 Department of Corrections employees represented 85 percent of pay increases on the payroll list.

Nonexecutive agencies, including constitutional officers, the Highway and Transportation Department and the Department of Higher Education, are not included under the payroll system, said Jake Bleed, spokesman for the state Department of Finance and Administration.

The analysis of the state’s payroll system was provided to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette from the finance department through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Under the new tier structure, annual salaries range from $26,824 for a minimumsecurity correctional officer to $51,444 for a major at the Varner SuperMax, according to the memo.