State lawmakers could be poised to get a double-digit raise over the next two years.
A salary-setting board wants to boost rank-and-file lawmakers’ salaries by 11.2 percent in two steps to $46,839 in September 2016 — their first salary increase in seven years.
The Washington Citizens’ Commission on Salaries for Elected Officials voted 9 to 5 to support the proposal Tuesday, but won’t make its final decision until May.
The commission heard an appeal from Senate minority leader Sharon Nelson to consider an increase so the “best and the brightest” in Washington could afford to serve in the Legislature even if they aren’t wealthy.
“Since there hasn’t been that increase since 2008, this step will really help us (make sure) that legislators who are here are representatives of the vast majority of Washingtonians, and that’s working-class people,” Nelson, a Democrat from Maury Island, said Wednesday upon learning of the proposal.
Drawing on a consultant’s research, the salary commission considers lawmakers’ duties comparable to those of nonunion state administrators who are paid a salary range with a midpoint of about $75,000. Accounting for a part-time schedule considered about 70 percent of full-time, that could put ideal pay for lawmakers at about $52,000.
Rank-and-file lawmakers in Washington make $42,106, fifth-most in a group of 23 states with similar time commitments.
To catch up with and keep pace with inflation, the commission decided, those should rise by 8 percent on Sept. 1 and another 3 percent a year later.
The raises would bring 143 lawmakers up to $46,839. Four legislative leaders have higher salaries. The House and Senate minority leaders would make $51,288 under the proposal and the House speaker and Senate majority leader would make $55,738.
Lawmakers shouldn’t have to “take an oath of poverty” to serve, said Steve Isaac, a cattle rancher in the Yakima Valley serving his first term on the salary commission. He voted for the proposal.
Commission chairman Dick Walter said he has no problem raising lawmakers’ salaries but voted against the proposal over the speed of that increase.
“One of the things you have to think about is the relationship with state employees,” Walter said.
Unionized state employees have gone through a similar drought as lawmakers, with no general pay increase since 2008. They even took temporary cuts in pay and hours, which prompted some lawmakers to voluntarily return some of their own pay.
Those state employees, however, receive raises based on longevity. Lawmakers don’t — but they do receive daily stipends while in Olympia that rose by a third last year to $120. That makes them eligible to receive $19,800 over the course of a two-year term with no special sessions or extra meetings.
Gov. Jay Inslee has negotiated contracts with many state employees that call for base raises of 3 percent this July and another 1.8 percent a year later.
Lawmakers are considering whether to fund those contracts.
A spokesman for the Washington Federation of State Employees said the union would make sure its members know about the proposed raises as they press lawmakers to approve their own.
“Our members will view this as the Legislature being treated as an elite group, getting a higher pay raise than we had to scrape and claw for months to negotiate,” Tim Welch said.
The salary commission planned to vote on salary proposals for other elected officials later Wednesday. A voter-approved constitutional amendment handed salary-setting authority to the independent commission.
