Wake school board approves more frequent pay for bus drivers, others in bid to boost retention
More than 6,000 Wake County Public School System employees will eventually be paid twice per month after the Wake County Board of Education approved the change Tuesday.
The changes will go into effect by mid-2025 for certain school system employees, including some in the hardest-to-fill positions.
The change won't mean anyone is paid more, but the effort is intended to help retain employees who have fluctuating hourly wages and want to be paid more often.
Currently, the system’s nearly 20,000 employees are paid once per month, a requirement of state law for most of them. Typically, they receive a paycheck at the end of the month for work done the previous month.
Most employees want this to change, according to a new survey conducted by the Wake County Public School System. The survey went out to 6,364 employees the school system has determined could legally be paid twice per month, and 62% said they preferred twice per month. The favorability was especially high for hourly workers, 70% of whom said they preferred a twice-monthly system.
Supporters said the twice-monthly system would make it easier for them to budget at home, although some salaried employees said it would make it harder. Bus drivers largely favored the change, although they often have less consistent paychecks because a worker shortage requires higher overtime some weeks.
Bus driver Ricky Albino told WRAL News he believes changing pay to twice per month will help with recruitment, so that people don’t have to wait as long for their first full paycheck.
“But another thing they're going to have to do too is work on the hourly rate,” Albino said.
Albino works a second job, and he knows many others do, too. People can work for the same pay and less stress at other jobs — something that’s appealing to many people even if the benefits packages aren’t the same.
The school system is so short on bus drivers, hundreds of students can’t get an on-time bus to or from school, resulting in late arrivals everyday.
Board members didn't discuss the proposal Tuesday night before approving it but have expressed support for making pay more frequent. They cite anecdotal feedback from current and prospective employees about how being paid only once per month is a deterrent to hiring and tough on workers who don’t make too much to begin with. Being paid only once per month can keep a new employee from receiving their first full paycheck until they’ve already worked for the school system for several weeks.
That’s deterred newly hired school bus drivers, said Rachel Wells, a board member and business agent for Teamsters Local 391, which represents bus drivers and other school employees in much of North Carolina.
“They found out they had to wait so long for a paycheck, and they just went and got another job,” Wells said. “I’ve heard it numerous times.”
Teamsters Local 391 has pushed for twice monthly pay for years.
Albino said the onboarding process to become a bus driver takes weeks before their first day or work officially begins. Then, they might have to work for several more weeks before they receive a first paycheck. He doesn’t think younger generations will accept that.
“If you're telling someone that they're gonna have to work, do classes and they won't get paid for another 2.5-3 months, nobody's gonna do it,” he said.
By state law, most state employees — including teachers and administrators — can only be paid once per month. But the law allows for some employees — including bus drivers, instructional assistants, other hourly workers and limited salaried workers — to be paid on a different schedule. The large majority of school systems keep all employees on the same schedule, but at least 10 have chosen to pay eligible employees twice per month, according to the Wake school system.
Those include Durham Public Schools and Guilford County Schools, Wells said. She hasn’t heard negative feedback from those systems or employees who work for them about the change.
But the school system has cautioned board members about how a major change could cause mistakes if even small things aren’t done properly, such as inaccurate or late paychecks. That’s in part because it would increase the number of “payroll lockout” days — days in which staff have limited access to payroll software while payments are being processed.
Superintendent Robert Taylor told board members Tuesday that “for some reason” human resources software is extra-complicated for schools and can take years to change. He’s seen mistakes happen in other school systems during software transitions that resulted in headaches for administrators and employees.
The school system is also in the midst of moving to a new human resources software and is already short-staffed in the human resources department. It hasn’t added human resources staff in at least 15 years, despite adding dozens more schools and thousands more students and employees.
The school system projects at least $215,000 in one-time costs to make a change to twice-monthly paychecks and six new full-time employees with benefits, costing about $495,000 every year.
The school system doesn’t have estimated cost savings from the move, such as the potential benefit to reduced overtime pay if more people are hired.
The vote Tuesday doesn't including the hiring of any new staff members.
Wells said school systems that have made the change haven’t studied the impact of them, although she hears positive feedback.
