Big raises for Nebraska corrections officers already bringing in applicants

Two weeks after Gov. Pete Ricketts’ administration announced substantial pay bumps for state corrections officers and other state security workers, the higher pay appears to be spurring more interest in open jobs.

The raises were announced Nov. 10, with hopes that they might help recruit and retain employees and chip away at the prisons’ deepening staffing crisis.

As of last month, about a third of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services’ “protective services” positions — corrections corporals, sergeants and caseworkers — were vacant. The increasingly sparse staffing has spurred myriad problems, including record overtime costs, limits on inmates’ activities, safety issues, and “staffing emergencies” at prisons in Lincoln and Tecumseh that allow for 12-hour shifts.

Assuming the union approves the agreement, starting wages for corrections corporals and prison caseworkers will rise from $20 an hour to $28 an hour. That equates to a bump from an annual salary of $41,600 to $58,240, assuming a 40-hour workweek for 52 weeks a year. Sergeants will get a bump from $24 an hour to $32 an hour under the agreement, which would equate to a raise from $49,920 a year to $66,560.

Read more: https://journalstar.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/big-raises-for-nebraska-corrections-officers-already-bringing-in-applicants/article_add04eac-959d-51cf-bd19-38ccccc68576.html
(Lincoln Journal Star)