Austin could raise its city employee wages again. Here's how much is proposed.

Austin American-Statesman
Ella McCarthy, Austin American-Statesman
July 20, 2023

For a second year in a row, the city of Austin is hoping to increase city employee wages an additional 4% and raise the minimum wage for permanent and temporary city employees to $20.80 per hour.

Under the proposed $5.5 billion 2023-24 budget draft, the pay raise is recommended to help keep up with increased costs of living and to curb staffing vacancies, which are at 14.4% across the city.

"We feel this increase is necessary to keep us competitive in the labor market so we can continue to attract and retain the best quality employees that we can," Ed Van Eenoo, the city's chief financial officer, told the City Council during a work session Wednesday.

Staffing shortages and pay raises

The proposed increases come just a year after the minimum wage for city employees was raised from $15 to $20 in the 2022-23 budget.

By October 2025, the city projects a minimum wage of at least $22 per hour.

The city has seen a 3% drop in vacant jobs since the start of the year, something Van Eenoo in part attributes to the increases in city wages that were approved last year.

"We have also been very aggressive in our recruiting efforts, so for all of those, we've really started to see our vacancy rates come down," Van Eenoo said.

The airport staff has the highest vacancy rate, at over 30%, Van Eenoo said. The Austin Police Department, which has been in an on-and-off partnership with the Texas Department of Public Safety due to staffing shortages, currently has a vacancy rate of about 18%.

"Police officers get step increases," Van Eenoo said. "We added an additional step increase of 3% for those folks that had 23 years of service.

"You see a lot of people leaving the force at 23 years, so our idea was by giving them that extra 3% pay in that year we might be able to keep them around for a few extra years before they retire," Van Eenoo added.

Wednesday was the first public work session on the proposed budget. Additional meetings will be held to receive public input before a final vote is scheduled to take place in mid-August.

To view the full version of the proposed budget, visit the Austin city clerk's website.