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Kansas state workers speak out against 1% pay raise, call for fair wages

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Sarah LaFrenz, sarah.lafrenz@koseunion.org

March 25, 2026 7:20 PM

TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas state workers are speaking out after lawmakers approved a 1 percent across-the-board pay raise, saying it fails to keep up with the current 2.4% inflation rate, rising costs, and does not reflect the value of the work they do every day to keep communities running.

Meanwhile, workers point to significantly larger raises approved for lawmakers and their staff in recent years, including a nearly 93 percent increase for legislators two years ago and additional raises since, including

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General Election 2018

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REMINDER!!!!!  

Election Day is Tuesday, November 6th .  The polls open at 7:00am and close at 7:00pm. 

Per K.S.A. 25-418, if you are scheduled to work the complete time the polls are open, then you can request time off to go cast your vote. You must pre-arrange the time off with your Supervisor.  
 
If you are rassigned mandatory overtime that day and will not be able to make it to the polls before they close; then you will need to talk to your Supervisor so time off can also be arranged for you to go cast your vote.

 Use your voice:   VOTE

 

Check out the ATF-Kansas Reccomended Candidates!  These

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Kansas’ vulnerable children deserve best social workers

Full Story At: https://www.kansas.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article210406749.html

BY BECKY FAST AND AND SARAH LAFRENZ

May 04, 2018 03:58 AM

Updated May 04, 2018 03:58 AM

Sometimes you just have to trust your gut reaction.

In an editorial last week, The Eagle editorial board began its consideration of a Kansas Department for Children and Families staffing proposal with this statement: “At first glance, it seems a preposterous and careless proposal: Spend $5.4 million to hire 200 unlicensed social workers to investigate reports of

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State Workers: We Need Workplace Bullying Protections In New Bill

KOSE Asks Legislature To End Abusive Work Enviroments

The Kansas Organization of State of Employees (KOSE) and American Federation of Teachers-Kansas (AFT - Kansas) today are pleased to see the anti-workplace-bullying bill, HB 2720, introduced in the Kansas legislature.  HB 2720 is sponsored by Rep. Jerry Henry (D-Atchison) at the request of KOSE and AFT-Kansas and extends to state workers  the same legal protections against workplace bullying the legislature afforded to students, teachers, and school workers just last year.   

You can read HB 2720 here.

Around our country, from school lunchrooms

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Remember that 1.5% Pay Raise The Governor Promised You? It Just Vanished

The pay raise the Governor announced for classified state workers has already begun to disappear from state budgets.  This week budget subcommittees at the state legislature began deleting the pay raise from appropriation bills.  So far employees at  the Department of Corrections and the Department of Health and Environment have seen their pay raises vanish. 

Is there a silver lining here?  Maybe. 

During committee hearings Rep. Sutton, R-Gardner stated it was a “fact” the Appropriations Committee wanted the 1.5% pay raise stripped out of all department budgets because they wanted to explore

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