Bargaining Update – 1/11/2021: Tentative Agreements to Salary and Benefit Packages

Earlier this evening, the District School Board of Pasco County and the United School Employees of Pasco (USEP) reached tentative agreements on proposals that, once ratified, will add over $25 million to the salary and benefit packages of the District’s teachers and School Related Personnel (SRP). The proposed settlement includes significant increases in the District’s contributions to salaries, health insurance benefits, and Florida Retirement System (FRS).

For teachers, the tentative agreement increases the minimum salary for full-time teachers to $44,820, while also providing at least a 3% salary increase to those teachers who earned a year of service credit with the District for the 2019-2020 school year. By combining additional District funding with the state’s Teacher Salary Allocation, the District and USEP were able to develop a proposal that provides not only the legislatively required increases to the minimum teacher salary, but also corresponding funding for veteran and non-classroom teachers who were largely excluded from the state’s teacher salary appropriation. For SRP, the tentative agreement increases the minimum hourly rate for all regular SRP positions to $10.00 per hour, while also providing at least a 3% salary increase to those SRP who earned a year of service credit with the District for the 2019-2020 school year. As part of the economic settlement, both parties acknowledged, and committed towards resolving, the salary compression issues that have been created for longer-term District employees through the implementation of the state’s Teacher Salary Allocation and the passage of the state-wide minimum wage increases.

In terms of the District’s comprehensive health insurance package, the tentative agreements also provide for an over $150 per employee per year increase in the District’s contributions towards those plans. In addition, the District will be covering the almost $5 million per year increase in required contributions towards employees’ FRS plans.

The District also intends to provide commensurate salary and benefit increases to its administrative, professional technical, and non-instructional/non-bargaining (NNB) employees, and both the District and USEP are currently in the process of developing timelines for ratification of the tentative agreements. Once ratification occurs, the District can begin the processing of salary increases and any applicable retroactive due to employees. More specific information on the specific terms of the tentative agreements as well as the timelines for ratification and salary increase processing should be available in the coming days.