One in five state jobs in North Carolina is vacant.
Ned Barnett’s op-ed in the News & Observer accurately shows why this is a deliberate problem.
“After years of the Republican-controlled legislature handing out stingy raises and short-term bonuses, state employees’ inflation-adjusted pay has decreased, benefits have eroded and job vacancies have soared.
Republican lawmakers, many of whom think less is more when it comes to state government, are content to accept a chronic shortage of state workers. Instead of providing money to keep state employee compensation competitive, Republicans have stuffed surplus revenues into reserve funds and used the savings on employee salaries to offset the cost of tax cuts.
Since 2014, average pay increases for the state’s more than 71,000 employees have lagged behind increases in the general labor market by 9.45 percent, according to a report from the Office of State Human Resources. Meanwhile, over the same period, state employees’ pay has lagged behind inflation by 5.9 percent.”
As the state of North Carolina keeps adding to its population, the needs fulfilled by the state increase. When those needs have to be met by fewer people which means that those who are state employees have to do more.
Oftentimes, they have to do more with less.
The same applies to teachers. And why aren’t teachers part of that “1 in 5” vacancy rate for state employees?
Because of longevity pay. One of the reasons that gerrymandered stalwarts in the North Carolina General Assembly gave as to why teachers no longer receive that pay is that teachers are technically not “state employees.”
And DPI makes sure to “ALMOST” make that distinction.
What that means is that teachers are hired and managed by local LEA’s and paid a minimum allotted salary by the state with funds provided by the NCGA to the LEAs which are then given to the teachers in the form of a salary. The local LEA can then add a local supplement as added income for teachers based on local funding measures.
That adds to the vacancy count as it pertains to what the state is supposed to finance.
And you can always look here at a “barometer” of the vacancies in education here in North Carolina:
