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ITD requests pay‑step increases and highlights recruitment struggles after adding 53 frontline positions
Summary
The Idaho Transportation Department told JFAC it has added 53 frontline positions but still faces recruitment and retention challenges. ITD requested targeted job‑class CEC increases that would raise maintenance pay steps by $2.50 per hour and said turnover and training costs justify the change.
The Idaho Transportation Department asked the Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee to approve targeted career‑step compensation (CEC) changes aimed at retention after adding 53 frontline positions last year and continuing to experience recruiting pressures.
ITD said the 53 positions — approved by the Legislature for highway operations last year — were largely frontline transportation technician and engineering assistant roles in districts. Director Scott Stokes told the committee the department has recruited nearly 50 of those 53 positions but still carries “about 60 to 70 vacancies” across the agency.
As part of its FY2026 request, ITD proposed a targeted CEC that would raise hourly pay for maintenance horizontal career‑path steps by $2.50 and that the governor’s recommendation includes similar language. Stokes said the increase would move an entire pay chart upward to avoid compression at entry levels: “If we only did the entry level, then we'd have this compression and they would be on top of each other. So we want to move the whole chart up $2.50.”
Stokes described recruitment and training costs as drivers of the request. He told the committee the agency’s average departures among maintenance staff had been “an average of 78 per year out of about 400” and that ITD spends substantial time and resources training new hires, including obtaining CDLs and snow‑plow certifications. The agency’s starting wage for these positions is “18.55 an hour,” he said — arguing that higher pay can reduce turnover and the repeated cost of training new recruits.
Lawmakers questioned whether raises would merely track market increases in private employers or local governments and whether employees could be retained after receiving state-funded training. Stokes and other ITD staff said turnover tends to be highest in the first one to two years and that retention improves over time — and that many comparable employers (cities and counties) pay $20–$25 an hour for similar roles.
Committee members asked ITD to provide more detailed comparisons and surveys of local pay rates and to clarify how any CEC increases would interact with the committee’s broader CEC deliberations.
The committee did not vote on the targeted CEC during the hearing; members signaled they wanted to review follow‑up materials showing market comparisons and the projected retention impact of the proposed pay‑step adjustments.
