The state is trying to keep up with the private sector. Gov. Brian Kemp and others repeatedly tout a niche business magazine’s consistently ranking Georgia as the No. 1 state to do business. That means more job opportunities for state employees outside government and more pressure on agencies trying to retain workers.

Adult and juvenile guards are getting a 10% pay bump this year, but Oliver said there’s still a long way to go. The new state budget didn’t include extra money to fund the salary increase, but instead froze vacant positions and used the money the agency didn’t spend on salaries to pay for the raises.

A 10% pay increase would boost starting wages to $30,730. DJJ officials said last year that 97% of newly hired corrections officers left the agency.

“With Georgia being No. 1 to do business, it just kind of makes it where we’ve got to be competitive with that,” Oliver said. “Not just juvenile justice, but state agencies overall.”

Dawn Bridgeforth, a juvenile corrections officer at the Rockdale Regional Youth Detention Center, said getting the raise would make her feel more valued as an employee.

“It will also help toward keeping my family’s heads above water following job loss by other family members due to the pandemic,” she said.

Kemp spokeswoman Mallory Blount said the governor was aware of the issues agencies face to remain fully staffed.

“Supporting all state employees continues to be a top priority for this administration, and our office is committed to working with state agencies in the future as we overcome the financial challenges of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic and pass conservative budgets that reflect our values as a state,” Blount said.

Each agency has its own problem area.

For the Department of Agriculture, it’s food safety inspectors across fields. At the Department of Labor it’s unemployment appeals hearing officers. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has had a difficult time keeping medical examiners.

For example, three of the state’s 15 medical examiner positions are vacant, GBI officials said. With that drop in employees, the remaining medical examiners have been tasked with handling about 450 autopsies each year. That’s well above the maximum 250 set to retain accreditation from the National Association of Medical Examiners.

“When Cobb County hired the last two MEs they brought on, they came to the (GBI) crime lab and got our folks that we had trained there,” GBI Director Vic Reynolds told a Senate budget panel. “They went up the road 25 miles and probably make $50,000 to $70,000 more a year for less work in one county.”

House and Senate budget writers added $427,000 to the midyear budget — which runs through June 30 — to help recruit and retain medical examiners.

Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black said employee pay has been a constant issue the 11 years he’s been in office. For him, the biggest issue is starting pay.

“Entry-level pay of $28,000 (for food inspectors) is very difficult to sell,” Black said. “We have a very good place to work, and we have a motivated workforce. And at the same time, they have families to feed and bills to pay.”

The last major salary increase the agency received was in 2013, Black said, when there were 62 employees making $20,600 — below the then federal poverty income level of $23,550 for a family of four. Those staffers got bumped up to about $28,000, and salaries have stayed there. That’s slightly above the current $26,500 federal poverty income level for a family of four.

State employees have gotten small salary increases in recent years, most recently a 2% bump in the fiscal 2020 budget.

At the Department of Labor, Commissioner Mark Butler said the agency has been able to temporarily increase the pay for its employees, mostly using federal money to fund overtime and hazard pay as the overwhelmed agency tries to keep up with unemployment claims.

But eventually, that increase in pay for department employees will go away and the state will need to figure out how best to compensate its workforce, Butler said.

“All employees need a significant pay raise,” Butler said. “What is it going to take to get you there? I’m not certain. But we need to start by looking at what the private-sector equivalent is, otherwise everybody suffers.”

Staff writer James Salzer contributed to this article.

Pay to stay

State agencies say they are having trouble keeping employees because pay is lower than many could make in the private sector. Below are a few of the things Georgia lawmakers are adding to the midyear budget — which runs through June 30 — to do something about it in the next few months:

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