After weeks of fighting over what should have been an easy decision, the Idaho Legislature yet again shortchanged Idaho’s 20,000 state employees. The approved compensation package by the Republican-dominated Joint Finance Appropriations Committee (JFAC) falls painfully short in addressing the pressing needs of our workforce, compromising our state’s ability to recruit and retain top talent.
If Republicans can find money for vouchers or income tax rebates that benefit the wealthy elite, they should be able to pay state employees a decent wage.
It’s unethical to treat our hardworking state employees this way, and it goes against Idaho code 67-5309A, which recognizes that “state government is a service enterprise in which the state workforce provides the most critical role for Idaho citizens.” And it is our legal responsibility to fund a competitive employee compensation package that will attract, retain, motivate, and reward employees for outstanding performance.
Yet, last week, JFAC offered state employees bread crumbs, agreeing to implement raises between $1.05 and $1.55 per hour for permanent state employees. This negligible, borderline offensive amount does little to retain valuable employees and costs the state more money because it leads to a constant turnover of staff.
According to Idaho’s fiscal year 2026 Change in Employee Compensation (CEC) and Benefits Report, state jobs are costing taxpayers more money because these workers use our state jobs as a training ground to move to a job in the private sector that pays, in some cases, twice as much. Idaho’s state jobs only attract brand-new employees, who then leave for higher paying jobs as soon as they can get them. There is nothing efficient about that.
After a decade of breaking our promise to fairly compensate state employees, we supported Governor Brad Little’s proposed 5% merit-based raise, aiming to reward outstanding performance, innovation, and leadership. The Idaho Division of Human Resources has reported that state employees are, on average, compensated about 20% less than their counterparts in the public and private sectors within the region, according to the CEC report. This significant pay gap ultimately impacts the quality of services provided to Idahoans.
State jobs in sectors like healthcare, information technology, and law enforcement cannot operate effectively until employees make better salaries. When you never fund government adequately, how can it possibly operate efficiently? This is part of a concentrated attack on public services and the social safety net that all of us depend on at some point in our lives.
Does Idaho value our state employees for the services they provide our communities? If so, let’s put our money where our mouth is and offer them a more substantial and equitable pay raise so they continue to be motivated, efficient, and dedicated to serving the people of Idaho. The hypocrisy of “we don’t have the money” is patently false when the GOP is more than able to find funds to reward their rich friends and subsidize private school tuition.
The legislature continues to ignore the law and play politics with people who are doing their best to serve Idaho and put food on their own tables. It’s time to end one-party rule in Idaho and stop shortchanging everyday working Idahoans.