Public hearings on budget requests for fiscal year 2025 began on Monday.
The Department of Justice is asking for a budget increase in order to eliminate their salary compression structure, which inhibits anyone in the department from making more than the attorney general.
“That’s just not right, and importantly, it’s not in line with how most other states pay their attorneys," Attorney General Kathy Jennings said at the hearing.
She says the majority of states pay their senior attorneys more than the attorney general.
“It totally inhibits our ability to compensate our deputy attorneys general in a way that is commensurate with their workload and with the competitive market rate that we face.”
Because of this restrictive pay structure, the department says it is struggling to stay fully staffed, losing attorneys to other states or private practices who offer better salaries.
DOJ has yet to release an official number as to how much the raises will cost in total, but is in preliminary talks with the governor’s office.
