I have worked for a state agency in the United States over the few years and have never received a raise. State employee salaries are public record so I can see my coworkers pay to include raises. Roughly half my coworkers got no raise like me and half got 1-3% raises. The exception to this rule is at the director level where salaries starts at around $100K. These fine folks get 4-10% raises every couple of years.
I got my hands on how much my unit spends on contracts and it blew my mind. We spent over $100M during my time at the state. One year, state legislatures and leaders even had the nerve to thump their chests saying “we saved money by not increasing the number of state employees this year.” This is such BS. A majority of these contractors are costing the state $50-150 an hour. Keep in mind we are just one unit of the state agency.
I did the math. Each person in my unit could get a $10,000 a year raise if we spend just 2.3% less on contractors.
I have multiple job interviews in the works and hope to finally get a raise soon.
Thanks for listening to my rant on state government dollars hard at work. This is a throwaway account for obvious reasons.