Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said legislative leaders try to keep their top employees "in the basic range" of state executive branch bosses. Moore's pay raises of 18 percent over two years may seem high compared to an average state worker's (who got a two-year raise of 9.36 percent, including promotions,) but Valentine said he believes top state department heads have seen similar raises in recent years.

The job descriptions of House and Senate workers don't always match up perfectly, the president added. There are valid reasons for different salaries between the House, the Senate, and legislative staff departments, he said.

Big numbers

The newspaper also found:

• A Senate secretary, who stayed within her job classification (in other words, did not get a promotion), saw her salary go up by more than 41 percent over four years to more than $45,000 a year as of June 30.

• One legislative attorney got four raises in fiscal 2008 (but stayed within her pay classification), going from $49,000 to more than $61,000, a 24 percent increase, in just one year.

• Over the past 12 months, one legislative research analyst, who also stayed within her job classification, got three raises, from $94,161 a year to $104,956 — a pay hike of 11.5 percent.

• Two legislative attorneys got huge promotions last year, each jumping four pay grades. The salary for one went from $80,000 a year to $105,000 a year, a 31 percent pay hike. The other's salary went from $78,000 to $111,000, a 42 percent pay hike.

• Eleven of some 60 employees, or about 20 percent, in the Research and General Counsel's office got promotions into higher pay in the past fiscal year.

• One legislative auditor got four raises and one promotion in fiscal 2008, from $39,540 a year to $44,054, or an 11.4 percent pay hike.

• Another legislative auditor got two pay raises and one promotion last year. His last promotion, however, did not result in a pay raise, as it did for some other auditors. But being in a higher job classification will allow him to get bigger pay hikes in the future.

Christensen said in some specific cases he gave multiple pay raises last year to keep young, outstanding employees, while other professional staffers got promotions as "catch-up" because they didn't get the promotions/raises they should have in recent years.

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com