June 3, 2024
The new budget biennium is coming next year! This means that in February 2025, the state legislature will be making big decisions about how the state will distribute funds for community colleges. Before those decisions are made, legislators will receive a list of recommendations from the Governor, who will receive recommendations from the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) and the Washington State AFT. These recommendation processes take time, so we need to start showing our support now if we want the SBCTC and Governor Inslee to ask the legislature for what our colleges need.
To organize this effort, the AFT has assembled a list of issues that need to be addressed in the next budget cycle. Let’s talk about increasing pay for our exempt employees above the overtime pay threshold.
This issue addresses a concern for our exempt employees, which are called Executive, Administrative, and Professional (EAP) employees by the state. The Department of Labor for Washington State sets a lot of rules for how EAP employees are paid, and one of the rules is the minimum pay under which EAP employees are eligible for overtime pay. This threshold is increasing dramatically over the next few years, as you can see in the chart below.
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This increase in the threshold means that in a few years, it’s possible that many of our exempt employees will be earning a salary below that threshold.
How is this a problem? The AFT is asking the state to increase EAP employee salaries so our hard-working exempt staff can get closer to earning a living wage. It’s been reported that 18% of our staff are experiencing food insecurity while working full-time jobs at Edmonds College. Anything we can do to improve their wage would be beneficial. So, the AFT is recommending that the state increase the pay of our EAP employees above this overtime threshold.
What can you do to help?
We need you to ask the state legislature to increase EAP employee salaries above the overtime threshold. To learn how to take action, see our Budget Biennium Action page for suggestions on who to contact and how. Also consider joining your fellow union members at the Lobby Days in early 2025, where we can speak directly to legislators about what our colleges and our students need to be successful.