The aides, researchers and other employees who work for Arizona state senators are getting a raise.
Senate President Karen Fann said in an email to lawmakers last week that full-time employees would get a 3% increase in pay, but that others among the nearly 100 staff would receive more.
The move comes as the Senate seeks to catch up with the higher salaries offered by the House of Representatives. The raises also come just a month after a jury awarded former Democratic policy adviser Talonya Adams $1 million in her lawsuit that showed the Senate had paid more to men working in similar jobs.
Adams also argued that she was discriminated against based on her gender and race.
A new salary schedule obtained by The Arizona Republic through the state’s public records law shows Democratic policy advisers received the largest raises, in proportion to previous salaries, with pay rising from the range of $50,000 to $74,000 last year up to $61,000 to $103,000.
They are still generally paid less than their Republican counterparts, however.
Meanwhile, top aides to caucus leaders got significant raises too.
Wendy Baldo, chief of staff to the Senate president, got a roughly 12% raise from last year to $164,800. That is around the same salary as Michael Hunter, chief of staff to House Speaker Rusty Bowers, R-Mesa, who is paid about $169,000.
On the other side of the aisle, Jeffrey Winkler, the chief of staff to Senate minority leader David Bradley, D-Tucson, got around a 17% raise over last year to $138,200. That is around the salary paid to Cynthia Aragon, chief of staff for the House Democrats.
The secretary of the Senate, Susan Aceves, received a boost to around $77,250. But that is still less than her counterpart in the House, whose salary was around $134,215 last year. Other administrative staff received raises over 3% too, but are still generally lagging in pay behind their colleagues in the House.
“We worked very hard on assessing their time of employment, responsibilities, skills, supervisory duties and comparison with counterparts in the House,” Fann, R-Prescott, wrote in her email to lawmakers.
The Senate president is ultimately responsible for pay as well as staffing, and Fann has said she wants to address disparities with the House, telling Arizona Capitol Times in May that the other chamber was offering better salaries to Senate aides.
The House raised salaries by 3% across the board this year.
Meanwhile, Democrats have raised concerns about the Senate’s practice of paying their aides less than Republican aides.
The judge in Adams’ case raised questions about that same practice during a hearing in January.
Lawyers for the Senate argued that Adams was paid similarly or better than other Democratic policy advisers.
But Judge Douglas L. Rayes noted that Republican policy advisers were paid better than Adams.
Lawyers for the Senate maintained that they were not similar, because the majority “pays differently” than the minority caucus.
“They’re in the same Legislature,” Rayes said. “They have the same job title, the same job description. How are they materially different?”
The judge said during that hearing that Adams had shown she was doing the same work and had the same title, casting doubt on the Senate’s claim that her pay could not really be compared to Republican counterparts.
Following Fann’s announcement, Bradley’s office said on Thursday that he only knew of the raises from the email she sent to members but has argued for parity in pay for staff on both sides of the aisle as well as among member’s assistants.
