The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-01-31
PLAN TO RAISEPAY
Demand Growing for Higher
Salaries for State Employees.
Ways and Means Committee
Favors 20 to 33 Pct. Jump.
LEGISLATURE CANNOT GET HELP
State Departments Also Lose
Their Trained Workers.
Cannot Compete With Big Pay
Cheeks of Private Life.

Under provisions of a bill Which is
expected to come from the fees and
salaries committees of the house and
senate at an early date. provision may
be made for a general horizontal in
crease in wages of state employees
Probably for the first time in the his
tory of the state the legislature has
been forced to recognize the fact that
state house jobs under the 1893 sal
airy schedules no longer attract COM
petent help. AS a result of the pres
ent situation it is reported that the
legislative committees may recon-
mend a general percentage increase in
existing salaries.
No announcement has been made by
the committees as to the bills which
are being prepared. In fact no bill is
as vet ready for introduction. The sal
airy proposition, tho. has been under
serious consideration and there is very
slight chance that the law makers will
go home without making some gem
eral provision for state employees. 1t
has been reported that committee
members favor a general increase
ranging somewhere from 20 to 33 per
cent
When the legislature came to To-
peka this winter it encountered an
awful shock. There was no wild
scramble for stenographic jobs by
trained workers. The experienced
workers We're employed steadily at sal
aries much in advance of the ~old
established three dollars a day and
board yourself. The salary which was
so attra ctive a quarter of a century
ago. held no lure fer the nimble pot
hook girl and copyist. When q legis
lative job was mentioned she winked
slyiy and-without thought of disre-
spect to her state-hinted that the
legislature ought to fix a salary in
keeping with the price of bran and
shorts
Departments Lose Help.
But the jolt which came to the leg
islators has been but an incident.
State Institution and department heads
weep real tears when they appear
before the committees this year. The
state hospitals have lost their Nursing
and attendant staffs-all because the
pay envelopes don't correspond with
the prevailing price of solid nourish-
ment and something to wear The
army of patient men who waited for
jobs as guards at, the state penal in
situations, has vanished. There is far
more money in driving a truck. The
corps of skilled doctors and medical
men have gone into army service, into
private practice or to other states The
tea ching staffs in the schools are far
below the established standard Other
states recognized the salary problems
before the alarm clock aroused the
Kansas legislature.
Several institutions have retained
efficient help only by strong pleas
and promise to help relieve the stu
alton when the legislature convened.
Now the legislature is in session. The
state departments have joined the in
situations in demands for more mon
ey. Many expert and trained workers
have left state house jobs in the last
two years to go with private or pub
lie service corporations that paid far
better salaries.
Low Salaries Kick Back.
Among number of members there
I was a tendency early in the session to
meet the situation by raising only the
plan is kicking back. The trained
worker can cash his or her ability in
private job. SO the plan to raise the
How salaried help and give no heed to
the experienced workers in better sal
aried positions threatened to leave
only the inexperienced and low SAL
aried workers for the places that de-
! mand competent and most highly eff
| ficient men and women.
The plan for a general salary in
crease seems more certain of success
at this time than since the present
general system was established
| twenty-siX years go. In order to meet
the situation and to relieve conditions
there is a demand for a horizontal in
crease in pay checks-the increase
! based on a percentage advance in
present salaries. There is strong
probability, it is reported, that such a
bill will be originated by the fees and
salaries committees OF the two houses
and introduced in the next two or