Overtime rules for all state employees, including legislative aides, should be the same, according to local legislators.
“I think all state employees should be subject to the same policies,” Rep. Carl Rollins, D-Midway said today.
Aides to the Kentucky General Assembly’s legislative leaders have been getting paid for thousands of dollars worth of overtime in recent years.
Twenty-three aides to House and Senate leaders have collected almost $300,000 in overtime over the past four years, the LexingtonHerald-Leader reported. During that time, the legislature has slashed most government agencies’ budgets.
Sen. Julian Carroll, D-Frankfort, said he was unaware legislative aides received overtime pay – he said he thought they received “comp time” like other employees. Carroll said he hopes legislative leaders will enact stricter policies.
“If they fail to do so, we can do it with legislation,” Carroll said.
Rep. Derrick Graham, D-Frankfort, said legislators need to re-examine the demands they place on staffers. He said he’s seen instances in which aides work 23 hours a day and only go home to take a shower.
Some Kentucky House employees earned more than $10,000 per year in overtime, the newspaper reported. John Gillig, former chief of staff for to then House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, received more than $9,000 in overtime in 2006, in addition to his salary of $106,000.
Stephanie Kirtley, former chief of staff for House Republican Leader Jeff Hoover, also accumulated overtime between 2006 and 2008, in addition to her salary of $99,000.
Becky Barnes, chief of staff to then House Majority Whip Joe Barrows, D-Versailles got $25,000 in overtime between June 2006 and January 2007.
Rep. Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg who is in his first year as House speaker, says leaders will have to examine overtime policies. The Senate has different overtime rules than the House.
There are 58 aides — out of 439 total Legislative Research Commission employees — who work directly for legislative leaders. Senate President David Williams said he approves requests for overtime on a case-by-case basis. He also said overtime is only paid at the regular rate – not time and a half.