If you supervise a classified employee whose salary range is the same as — or higher than — your own, Article 24.11 of our contract gives you a path to a one-range pay increase.
This comes up more often than people expect. It is normal for an administrator or deputy director to supervise a highly specialized professional — a nurse, engineer, or scientist — whose classification carries a higher range.
To be clear about what the differential is for: it is not a correction, and it is not there to make sure you out-earn the people who report to you. Depending on where each of you sits on the step scale, you may well already take home more than the higher-range employee you supervise. The differential recognizes that supervising a position classified above your own carries additional responsibility, and it compensates you for that responsibility.
Do you qualify?
Both of these must be true:
- The employee you supervise is at the same or a higher salary range than you, and their position is currently filled.
- Your supervisory authority over that employee is listed on your position description.
Two things to keep in mind:
It is about range, not dollars, and not steps. “Same or higher range” means the range number on the State’s pay schedule. A long-tenured employee at a high step can take home more than their newly hired supervisor while still sitting at a lower range — that does not qualify. Only the range number matters.
The bump is one range, no matter what. Whether your subordinate is one range above you or six, the contract awards a single range increase. Your step carries over, and you continue to advance through performance and service steps normally.
It is not permanent. The differential lasts only as long as the qualifying supervisory relationship does. If that employee leaves or is reclassified downward, the differential goes away.
It is not retroactive — and this is the part that costs people money. The increase does not reach back to the date you started supervising, and it does not even reach back to the date you filed. It starts when your request is processed. Every month you spend meaning to get around to it is a month you are paid at the lower range and will never recover. Processing typically takes about 25 to 30 days on top of that. If you think you might qualify, file now rather than after you have gathered one more document.
What you need to submit
APEA/AFT files the request on your behalf. Your field representative will need:
- Your employee ID number
- Your PCN
- Your official job title
- Your department and division
- Your current salary range
- The date you began supervising one or more classified employees at the same or higher salary range
- For each qualifying direct report: their name, PCN, title, and salary range
- A copy of your position description
If your position description does not reflect your supervisory authority, that is the first thing to fix — the request will not succeed without it. Work with your supervisor and admin staff to get the PD updated. If you supervise someone but cannot get the PD corrected, reach out to us; we can help you work through it.
How to file, and what happens next
Send the information above to your APEA/AFT field representative. They prepare the request and submit it to the Division of Personnel & Labor Relations. Under the contract, the Director makes every effort to respond within 30 calendar days; in practice, approvals typically come back in about 25 to 30 days.
Please also loop in your employee representative or chapter chair. Your field rep does the filing, but your local leadership should know these requests are happening — patterns in who qualifies tell us where the State’s classification system is out of alignment, and that is information we use at the bargaining table.
Not sure whether you qualify? Ask us before you rule yourself out. We would much rather look at a borderline case than have you leave a range on the table.