Parson holds ceremonial signing for state worker pay raise bill

View a replay of the ceremony in the player above.

FULTON, Mo. (KMIZ)

Corrections officers at the Fulton Diagnostic Center said the differential pay in the emergency spending budget will help fill overnight shifts.

Gov. Mike Parson on Tuesday visited the Fulton Diagnostic Center for a ceremonial signing of H.B. 14. Parson on Monday signed the emergency spending budget at the Harry S Truman Atrium, giving state workers an 8.7% pay raise.

Parson said there are more than 7,000 open state employee positions.

"You gotta compete with the private sector and frankly we weren't doing a very good job of that, so hopefully this will encourage people to stay with us for the benefits that we have and retain those jobs," Parson said.

According to the U.S. Census, Missouri's per capita income is $33,000 a year. With an 8.7% pay raise, someone making that amount would make about $36,000 a year, or an extra $240 a month.

This budget also includes a $2-an-hour differential pay for overnight workers. That's extra hourly pay for those who work middle-of-the-night shifts at 24-hour facilities. Chief of Custody Major Albert Narvaez said this will help fill those positions and give incentives to more experienced workers to work overnight.

"There was a time in my journey that I would leave work at 7 in the morning from my shift and I would clean up from my kids soccer game and I'd stay up all day after that just being a dad and a husband and the time I spent at work in the evenings were some of the sacrifices that I know a lot of you have made too," Narvaez said.

The raise was outlined in the State of the State speech last month.