SAN DIEGOSAN DIEGO — San Diego is giving a series of pay raises totaling nearly 23 percent to more than half its workforce to help retain employees and fill thousands of vacancies officials have blamed for deteriorating city services.
The large pay hikes over the next three years for about 4,500 white-collar workers and roughly 2,000 blue-collar workers will sharply shrink salary gaps as large as 30 percent between those workers and their counterparts with other government agencies.
The pay raises are also likely to increase the city’s pension debt beyond $3 billion. Debt projections by the city’s pension system assume city workers will get much smaller annual raises of just over 3 percent.
Under new labor deals with two of the city’s six employee unions, workers will get 5 percent raises this July, 5 percent raises in January, 4 percent in July 2024, 2 percent in January 2025 and a final 5 percent in July 2025. With compounding, the raises amount to 22.8 percent.
City officials say the raises will help make up for a nine-year wage freeze at City Hall that began in 2010 after the Great Recession and continued through 2019 because of a ballot measure prohibiting most pay increases.
“Much like decades of deferred maintenance left our streets in terrible shape, years of no pay increases, low wages and benefit cuts took their toll on the city’s workforce,” Mayor Todd Gloria said. “This agreement is another step to reverse years of underinvestment in our employees that resulted in unfilled positions and delayed or diminished services for our residents.”
The leader of one of the two unions that agreed to the new deals, the Municipal Employees Association, said the package of raises has been a long time coming.
“MEA’s entire leadership team, staff and legal counsel have all been single-minded in waging a multi-year advocacy campaign to achieve more competitive pay and benefits for MEA-represented employees,” said Michael Zucchet, the union’s general manager.
“These increases will help the city retain existing employees, make it easier to recruit new ones to fill chronic vacancies, and will have a direct and positive effect on city services” he said. “This contract definitely helps cut into the city’s compensation gap with other jurisdictions, though with inflation there is still work to be done in the future.”
The other union that reached a new deal is Local 127 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The City Council is expected to approve the new contracts this month after they are ratified by of both unions.
MEA represents just under 4,500 white-collar workers, including dispatchers, pool guards, recreation center workers, code compliance officers and customer services representatives.
Local 127 represents just over 2,000 blue-collar workers, including employees who repair streets and streetlights, collect trash, remove litter, maintain city vehicles to keep them in service and keep parks, libraries and beaches clean.
Roughly 18 percent of the city jobs represented by the two unions are vacant.
A 2020 city audit found a major cause of employee turnover and vacancies was a significant pay gap between San Diego and other California jurisdictions. A new salary comparison survey is expected to be released this spring.
Last year, the City Council adopted a compensation philosophy that sets a goal of paying at least the “market median compensation” for comparably situated public employees.
Tim Douglass, president of Local 127, urged his to ratify the new deal, which he said was reached “after many long hours at and away from the negotiating table beginning in November.”
The new deals leave only one of six city labor unions without a contract, the Deputy City Attorneys Association. The city’s agreements with MEA and Local 127 were due to expire June 30.
Deals reached last year with city police officers, firefighters and lifeguards run through July 2024. They include annual raises of about 5 percent.
Councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe praised the new labor deals.
“This tentative agreement demonstrates our value for city workers and is a step toward living up to ‘America’s Finest City’ by providing quality services to our residents after years of divestment,” she said.
