The Delaware Public Education Compensation Committee votes to recommend raising bus driver salaries to $25 an hour.
The committee was created to recommend compensation structure changes for school staff to help the state compete with regional school districts, private businesses and other agencies..
The 15-person committee voted this week to raise bus driver salaries from $22.50 an hour - a move that would cost the state around $4.3 million in FY2025 and districts about $500,000 for the 2024-2025 school year. The state contributes 90 percent of drivers’ salaries while districts handle the rest.
New Castle Vo-Tech Director of Business Sean Sokolowski says the pay rate was raised from $21 an hour last year, but notes many districts think the state can do better to attract more bus drivers.
“In FY23 the state base rate for bus drivers was $21 an hour, and thank you to the state, they’ve increased that to $22.50 for FY24," Sokolowski says. "But there's a public transportation committee meeting and a lot of districts that feel we can do better for our bus drivers.”
Sokolowski adds that the bus driver shortage is still prominent in districts across the state.
“The bus driver shortage has really impacted us significantly over the past two years," Sokolowski says. "We were at 118 routes before COVID, and now we’re down to 95 routes. So we have some students that are on the bus for almost two hours.”
Sokolowski adds counties in Maryland bordering Delaware offer anywhere from $16-30 an hour for district-hired drivers and $25-29 for contractors. And in Pennsylvania, it’s around $20-25 an hour. Sokolowski says around one-third of bus drivers in Delaware are contractors, with the rest employed directly by school districts.
The committee will submit a full report of recommendations to the Governor no later than November 15 for consideration for next year’s budget.
