Future state workers would say goodbye to the prospect of getting paid more than Gov. Jerry Brown under legislation pushed by a Republican state senator.
Senate Bill 1368, by Sen. Joel Anderson, would set the top salary available to state workers and officers at the $173,987 annual paycheck currently approved for the state's top executive.
"Salaries should be tied to the actual duties and responsibilities of the position," the Alpine Republican said in a statement. "Only highly paid bureaucrats can rationalize why their responsibilities are of greater importance than the Governor of a state with 38 million citizens."
The cap would include overtime pay, but would not affect compensation levels set by the state constitution or pay packages in contracts approved ahead of January 1, 2013. It could apply to workers re-hired or reappointed after that date.
Anderson's office says there are 8,000 workers currently making more than the governor. An analysis of state worker pay by Anderson's office found that nearly 70 percent of those paychecks go to University of California employees, who would not be covered by the bill. Because of constitutional protections for the University of California, the bill language encourages the UC Regents to enact a similar cap for its employees.
The bill, which can be read here, is scheduled to by heard by the Senate Public Employment and Retirement Committee on April 9.
Click here to search The Sacramento Bee's State Worker Salary database.
Editor's note: This post was updated at 1:24 p.m. to correct the name of the Senate Public Employment and Retirement Committee.
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