Most of us have worked for at least one bad employer. I remember one boss who talked about herself in third person. Another never paid me earned commissions. The court case proved they never intended to pay me, or others. Back in the mid-1970’s a friend worked in a plant making attic insulation: they kept promising the workers that respirators where “on order.” No one could endure the job long enough to see if that order ever arrived.
A decade ago I met employees of a Fenton company which promised, right before Thanksgiving, that paychecks – running two weeks late because of a ‘computer glitch’ – would be available on Friday. Workers arrived to find the building stripped bare. Oh yes, the boss also ‘forgot’ to pay unemployment premiums.
Bad employers, alas, aren’t rare.
Onto that list, let’s add the state’s greatest offended: the State of Missouri.
► Missouri state employees are the worst paid state workers in the nation.
► Next Fiscal Year Missouri workers will get a 3% raise, their greatest wage increase in many years (many years they got no increases) still, under the national 3.2% raise
in wages [ https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/realer.pdf ]
► State workers’ ultimate bosses, the legislature, repeatedly demean the workers and their actions.
► The state finds many ways to nickel and dime employees.
► Hard working workers may soon find pension promises meaningless.
How poorly paid are Missouri workers? The Missouri Department of Transportation has even said an estimated 20 percent of its workforce may be eligible for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). [ https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/costs-missouri-add-state-workers-seeking-better-pay-quit-their-jobs#stream/0 ]
That 3% raise – which could still be stopped by the governor if money gets tight – still leaves Missouri workers below Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and all other states’ pay scales.
During House of Representatives debate on work requirements for benefit programs such as Medicaid, a number of Republican members claimed that the Department of Social Service could easily process hundreds of thousands of work reports from participants each month with no increase in staff, at no additional cost. Legislators repeatedly say that state workers are under worked.
Washington allows those who drive for their job to take a deduction of 58¢ per mile. Next Fiscal Year Missouri state workers forced to drive their car for their job get an increase from 37¢ to 43¢ per mile. For a field worker driving 4,000 miles a year that’s a $600 dink. And, I recently heard of a state supervisor who chastised their workers for not bringing their own pens and paper to use in their job.
During debate on the Senate floor this past session I heard a Republican assert that Missouri can change pension plans for workers at any time for any reason – even if the pension was promised in writing or by contract – because all of those dollars are taxpayer money and the Legislature has complete control of taxpayer money. And, in the Capitol hallways some whisper of reducing teacher pensions.
So, a promise is a promise unless it’s inconvenient. Workers ought to be so happy they have a job that poor pay, bad bosses, and other quirks must be ignored.
For the record, one of my nephews works for the Missouri Department of Transportation. He’s reliable and good with machinery. He probably won’t stay with MoDOT very long: his co-workers explained that once he gets a couple of good performance reviews he’ll get job offers from municipal and county road crews where the pay, benefits and work conditions are better.
There’s a price to pay for being the worst.
Glenn