Panel urges 21% pay hike for judges

The price tag for that size of state employee raise is about $28 million, Price said, adding the department is also seeking a total of another $46 million to better adjust salaries to the market.

"We're just waiting to hear from the governor's office," she said. "We have not heard what direction they are going at all."

Last year, state workers saw a 2.5 percent pay increase plus 2 percent in benefits.

Commission members decided 5.5 percent would be enough for the state's top appointed officials, too. Huntsman had sought as much as a 30 percent pay hike for some of his department heads earlier this year by putting them all in the same pay range.

Lawmakers rejected the governor's plan but asked the commission to study it. Monday, the commission only said that there should continue to be various pay ranges for department heads, since they have different levels of required expertise and responsibility.

As for elected officials, only the lieutenant governor, auditor and treasurer would receive additional compensation under the commission's recommendations. No pay increase was proposed for the governor or the attorney general.

But after hearing at a past meeting from state auditor Auston Johnson's office that he was underpaid compared to his peers and made less than some of his staff, the commission voted to set the auditor's salary at 85 percent of the governor's.

The salaries of the lieutenant governor and the treasurer would also be set at 85 percent of what the governor makes, currently $104,100. That would jump all of those salaries to $88,500 — as much as a $7,500 increase. Lawmakers already agreed last session to set the attorney general's salary at 95 percent of the governor's after years of pressure from the commission.

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