2008 Woodie Awards
Overtime pay for state workers tops $100 million for first time
Troopers, firefighters, prison guards among those to see jump
By: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Issue date: 3/31/08 Section: State
COLUMBUS (AP) - Overtime for state employees increased 16 percent during the first year of Gov. Ted Strickland's administration, topping $100 million for the first time, a newspaper reported yesterday.
State troopers protecting the governor, firefighters at Air National Guard bases, medical personnel at state hospitals and prisons, and computer experts were among those receiving big overtime payments, according to a computer analysis by The Columbus Dispatch.
The newspaper found that 11 employees received at least $50,000 in overtime.
In addition, 2,167 had overtime payments of $10,000 or more.
Part of the jump resulted from the changeover in administrations from Gov. Bob Taft to Strickland, said Ron Sylvester.
Sylvester is a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Administrative Services, which provided payroll data to The Dispatch.
The majority of state employees received a 3.5 percent raise last year, Sylvester said. Strickland, a Democrat, also froze the pay of about 3,400 higher level staff members.
The total state payroll rose $116 million from 2006 to 2007.
For the first three months after Strickland took office last January, as many as 200 positions were temporarily "double-filled," Sylvester said.
This means that new employees were hired while the previous employees, many of them Republican appointees from the Taft administration, were still on the payroll.
In addition, overtime and payroll increased because employees put in thousands of hours responding to the theft of a computer backup device carrying the Social Security numbers of thousands of Ohioans and other sensitive data, Sylvester said.
Overtime increases showed up across state agencies, the newspaper reported.
At the Ohio Department of Transportation, where overtime increased 40 percent to $16 million, 362 employees got more than $10,000 each in overtime last year, compared with 235 in 2006.
State troopers protecting the governor, firefighters at Air National Guard bases, medical personnel at state hospitals and prisons, and computer experts were among those receiving big overtime payments, according to a computer analysis by The Columbus Dispatch.
The newspaper found that 11 employees received at least $50,000 in overtime.
In addition, 2,167 had overtime payments of $10,000 or more.
Part of the jump resulted from the changeover in administrations from Gov. Bob Taft to Strickland, said Ron Sylvester.
Sylvester is a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Administrative Services, which provided payroll data to The Dispatch.
The majority of state employees received a 3.5 percent raise last year, Sylvester said. Strickland, a Democrat, also froze the pay of about 3,400 higher level staff members.
The total state payroll rose $116 million from 2006 to 2007.
For the first three months after Strickland took office last January, as many as 200 positions were temporarily "double-filled," Sylvester said.
This means that new employees were hired while the previous employees, many of them Republican appointees from the Taft administration, were still on the payroll.
In addition, overtime and payroll increased because employees put in thousands of hours responding to the theft of a computer backup device carrying the Social Security numbers of thousands of Ohioans and other sensitive data, Sylvester said.
Overtime increases showed up across state agencies, the newspaper reported.
At the Ohio Department of Transportation, where overtime increased 40 percent to $16 million, 362 employees got more than $10,000 each in overtime last year, compared with 235 in 2006.
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