A day after a majority of delegates shot down a bill with similar concepts, the state Senate unanimously passed a bill moving toward higher pay for state workers in regions where cost of living is higher.
Senate Bill 593 passed 33-0 — without any debate. It now goes to the House of Delegates.
The bill would require every state agency to develop a locality pay plan. At this point, it doesn’t require actually implementing locality pay. Agencies would need to report back to the Legislature by the end of the year.
Eventually, though, “We can hopefully implement locality pay plans across state agencies in West Virginia,” said Sen. Jason Barrett, R-Berkeley, speaking on MetroNews’ “Talkline.”
The bill includes findings that some areas of the state are experiencing higher economic growth and more-rapid increases of cost of living. It says the state is losing valuable public employees because salaries and benefits are not competitive.
“If you look at the market rate in different areas of the state, if you look at the Eastern Panhandle and what it takes to hire a DHHR worker or any state employee, that’s considerably more to recruit and retain employees as compared to Northern Virginia, D.C. and Maryland,” Barrett said.
A similar bill was voted down this week in the House after a debate about the challenges faced by different regions of the state.
Barrett, a former delegate, was aware of that vote. “We’re all in this together. We all have challenges in our communities,” he said.
But he said the cost-of-living challenges in the Eastern Panhandle are particularly acute.
“We just cannot retain employees. I know there are other areas of the state that share similar concerns and issues,” he said.
“I don’t think the market rate in other areas of the state would warrant the same pay that it does in the Eastern Panhandle.”
Marital consent
Across the Capitol, West Virginia delegates passed a bill establishing 18 as the age of marital consent and prohibiting marriages at younger ages.
House Bill 3018 passed on an 84-13 vote.
The bill removes the ability of an underage person to obtain consent to marry through their parents, legal guardians or by petition to circuit court.
“It does not affect any legal marriage that is in place in this state, existing as of now,” said House Judiciary Chair Moore Capito, R-Kanawha, who explained the bill on the floor. “It also would not alter a marriage of somebody of a different age that was legally entered into in a state where that was legal who then comes to West Virginia.”
Delegate Keith Marple, R-Harrison, spoke against the bill. Marple said he was speaking from experience as someone who got married at 18 while a student at West Virginia Wesleyan. He also shared that he has a daughter who got pregnant under age 18.
“We’re talking about human beings,” he said. “People have been dating from teenage on up, people have been living from teenage on up, and they have been getting married in this state.”
He concluded, “I urge you to vote against this bill. People are still going to be doing this same thing whether this bill passes or not.”
The bill’s lead sponsor, Delegate Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, said she is thankful for the bill’s passage.
“It’s an important first step to protect children in our state, and I’m hopeful the Senate will take up the bill as well. We are one of few states in the country that have zero floor for the age of marriage and this bill remedies that to ensure only adults are able to consent to marriage,” Young said after the passage vote.
“Many people think most underage marriages are teenage lovebirds or a pregnant teenage, but that is not the case in the more than 700 marriages where one or both parties were under 18 in the last 20 years. The largest age gap is between a 16 year old boy and a 56 year old woman.”
TWEET @DominionPostWV
