What problem does it solve? Will save NJ money and provide more time off for those who need it. What is your solution and who does it apply to? Offer every state employee an additional three paid days off in a calendar year in exchange for a reduction of 1% of their annual salary. It can be offered on a trial basis to see the level of interest. Using the transparent state employee payroll data, it is easy to calculate the savings potential. Rationale: Many employees want to save their accrued sick time for emergencies. Many people with young children often need additional time off to attend to family matters and celebrations. Many highly paid employees may not find the 1% to be a hardship to their income. Newer employees who have not accrued many days would benefit from this offer. It would be easier to take this offer than to try to get unpaid leave time approved. What is the anticipated impact? Implementation: Employees will have to work smarter and find a way to make up the work they will miss from these additional three days, just as they do when taking vacation for example. An additional code in ECATS should be a simple task. Reducing income by 1% annually should be a simple task that is already built into payroll for other reasons such as step increases. If only 25% of state employees opted for this benefit, based on 2018 regular payroll data, the state would save over $11,000,000. Employees who need additional time and can afford it, will feel less stressed and potentially more productive.
This content is created by the open source Your Priorities citizen engagement platform designed by the non profit Citizens Foundation