A proposal made by the governor would freeze the wages of public workers in the state for the next two years.

Gov. Scott Walker proposed a “compensation plan” Tuesday that was outlined by the Office of State Employment Relations and sent to legislative leaders for consideration.

The compensation plan would prevent public employment wages from increasing over the next two years, Andrew Welhouse, spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, said in an email to The Badger Herald.

“There are no general wage adjustments recommended for the biennium,” Welhouse said. “No increases, no wage cuts and no mass layoffs.”

According to Gregory Gracz, director of the OSER, in terms of employee base pay, supplemental pay and benefits, very little is expected to be changed from the former collective bargaining agreements set forth last year. 

Gracz said in the new compensation plan, provisions covering base pay, vacation and sick leave, including sick leave conversion credits, are going to generally be the same or slightly modified from current agreements.

In addition, Gracz said the vast majority of pay progression, supplemental pay and differential provisions from the former contracts of state workers are incorporated into the new compensation plan, with only minor changes in some areas.

“The modified language results in consistency and equity in application of pay and benefit provisions across employee groups,” Gracz said.

Marty Beil, executive director of the Wisconsin State Employees Union, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 24, said Walker’s complete rewrite of the rules eradicates decades worth of protections designed to minimize political influence and assure that state services are delivered equitably and those who provide state services are treated fairly.

“This is another huge power grab from an administration that is hell-bent on rewarding friends and intimidating anybody who dares to speak out,” Beil said. “Walker already eliminated civil service protection for dozens of top agency staff. Now he is giving that political staff all kinds of new power.”

On Feb. 12, the Economic Policy Institute conducted a study and found that full-time state and local government employees in the state earn, on average, 4.2 percent less than they would if they worked in the private sector. The study found that the changes to fringe benefit costs are regressive and therefore hitting the lowest-paid workers the hardest.

Changes to public employee compensation and in the state budget mean that low-income public sector workers may take a hit in their family budget of as much as 15 percent, said Tamarine Cornelius, research analyst for Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, in a statement.

In correspondence to this study, Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, said Walker wants to give political appointees exceptional power over the lives of middle class workers while forcing the employees to serve them, and that the governor refuses to make job creation and economic security a priority.

“Due to Gov. Walker’s extreme, hyper-partisan agenda that has assaulted workers’ rights, public education, universities and job-training programs, our state continues to be divided like never before,” Barca said. “The governor’s continuing initiatives to centralize power and cut the people out of involvement in their government will do nothing to bring our state back together, nor does it create any jobs.”