Oklahoma

State

Senate

Legislative
Brief

June 2004

The last statewide state employee pay raise occurred in 2000 with the enactment of Senate Bill 959 (2000). It provided a $2,000 annualized pay increase beginning in October 2000. In the 2004 the Legislature provided an annual $2,100 pay increase in House Bill 2005 for state employees. The Legislature also passed a judicial pay increase in Senate Bill 1075.

SUMMARY OF ACTIONS

Pay Raise

• SB 1075 (Morgan/Mitchell): Provides a pay increase effective in July 2005 for Justices of the Supreme Court, Judges of the Court of Criminal Appeals, Judges of the Court of Civil Appeals, district court judges, associate district court judges and special district court judges. This increase will also affect those other state officers and judges whose pay is tied to one of the listed positions receiving the increase. However, certain officers are prohibited by the Oklahoma Constitution from receiving a pay increase during their term of office. This bill also creates the Board on Judicial Compensation. The Board shall meet in every odd-numbered year and make a determination concerning judicial compensation. Any change to judicial compensation proposed by the Board shall take effect on July 1 of the following year unless rejected or amended by the Legislature.

  Effective July 1, 2005

• HB 2005 (Mitchell/Morgan): Provides a two-part pay increase for full-time and part-time officers and employees of the state, including temporary and other limited-term employees. Such employees who were employed on the last working day of December 2004 shall, beginning in January 2005, receive a $1,400 annualized pay increase. The second part of the pay increase begins in July 1, 2005, for all those employees who were employed on the last working day of June 2005. The second part of the raise is equal to a $700 annualized pay increase.

  The first phase of the pay raise which will begin January 1, 2005, will cost state agencies $24 million. The second phase will begin July 1, 2005, and will include the annualization of the FY ’05 pay raise of $1,400 per person plus an additional $700 per person. The total cost for FY ’06 will be an estimated $95 million.

  Effective July 1, 2004