Iowa state employees being asked to give up raises

DES MOINES — Hundreds of state public employee union members are being asked to forego a 1.25 percent pay increase they’ve been receiving since Jan. 1 without getting any assurance from the state it would prevent layoffs.

About 19,000 state employees represented by AFSCME will begin voting in early February whether to accept the state’s request to give up the raise agreed to in collective bargaining, according to Danny Homan, president of AFSCME Iowa Council 61.

For an AFSCME member in the midrange of the state pay scale, giving up the raise would amount to about 35 cents per hour or $61 a month, Homan estimated. READ MORE