Despite positive evaluations, most state employees did not get their Oct. 1 pay raises

More than 35,000 of Louisiana’s rank-and-file classified employees received their favorable evaluations, but they’re not getting their pay raises.

Officials at most state government agencies say they don’t have the money and would have to lay off employees to grant the 4 percent salary increases.

The pay bumps were scheduled to take place Oct. 1, but a majority of the executive branch agencies, along with most colleges and universities, sought and received state Civil Service permission to withhold the extra money. Ninety-six percent of the 37,736 classified civil servants evaluated were rated “exceptional” or “successful” — the job performance ratings needed to be eligible for the annual pay raises, according to a Civil Service report. State workers got raises last year, the first in three years, for some.

“I’d like nothing more than to give employee raises,” said Kathy Kliebert, the state health chief whose “lay off avoidance” filing impacted 5,153 people working at the State Department of Health and Hospitals. Four percent pay raises would have cost DHH an additional $10.5 million.

Read more: http://theadvocate.com/news/13605105-128/no-pay-raises-for-most