This report spotlights the voices of state workers, who share their experiences navigating unprecedented and historic staff turnover. The report finds that:
- Low pay is the primary driver of high turnover and short staffing.
- Without the pay needed to attract and retain employees, existing employees are given increasingly heavy workloads and face challenging working conditions.
- In this context, state employees experience high levels of stress, low morale, and burnout,
- Short staffing leads to a decline in the quality of services provided to everyday Texans, many of whom are children.
Workers surveyed who have remained in their jobs do so because they are committed to their agencies’ missions despite the challenging conditions. However, the burden placed upon them is heavy and unsound. The annual cost of state agency turnover is conservatively estimated at approximately $1.2 billion annually. However, the findings in this report reveal that the human toll of high workforce turnover, which is driven by low pay, is a reality that state legislators should and must continue to act on.
The key statistics from the survey data that informed the principal findings outlined above include:
Chronic Low Pay is the Primary Driver of the Retention Crisis
- 67.1% of survey respondents indicated that they have considered leaving their position for reasons other than retirement in the past year.
- Of those that have considered leaving this year, 53.2% shared that their consideration to leave stems from low pay, while 23.7% selected that it was due to stress and an unmanageable workload.
- 74.3% of those that have considered leaving indicated that an increase in pay could convince them to stay.
- 28% of survey respondents indicated that the Texas Legislature’s 2024-2025 budgeted 5% pay raise positively impacted their overall job satisfaction.
- 32.3% indicated they were grateful for the raise, but will most likely need to leave their job for a higher paying position.
Prolonged Systemic Understaffing Contributes to High Turnover
- 76% of survey respondents indicated that their workload has increased in the last year despite a decrease in average turnover.
- 53.3% indicated that staffing levels have not improved in the last year.
- 55.4% stated that, historically, staffing levels in their department have not kept up with the workload.
High Turnover Negatively Affects The Quality of Services Received by Texas’ Families
- 59.2% of survey respondents indicated that heavy workloads affected their ability to perform their job duties.
- 48.3% of Texas Health and Human Services Commission respondents indicated that heavy workloads affected their agency’s ability to provide families with quality services. 15.6% selected the response ‘I don’t know.”
Solutions: How the Texas Legislature Can Take Action and Raise the Bar for All Texans
- Raise state employees’ wages with a $10,000 across-the-board pay raise that includes university workers. State salaries lag behind the private market and have not kept pace with inflation, making state jobs uncompetitive. Coupled with unmanageable workloads, these uncompetitive salaries continue to drive high turnover that costs everyday Texans.
- Fully staff state agencies to meet Texas’ potential. Most agency average headcounts are far behind what is needed to adequately provide high quality public services to Texas’ more than 30 million residents.
- Treat retired state workers with the same dignity they provide to us through their public service. Give retirees a Cost of Living Adjustment that begins to restore the buying power that has been lost due to inflation and a rising cost of living.
