News from New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF)

For more information contact: Darcy Wells, 785-1900 Ext. 277

Media Advisory

State employees rally for locality-pay increases in high-cost areas

MANHATTAN, NY (10/26/2007; 1606)(readMedia)-- On Tuesday, October 30, members of the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) will hold a rally to call for economic relief for state employees who work in high-cost areas of the state.

Hundreds of PEF members will gather at City Hall Park across from 250 Broadway between Park Place and Murray Street at noon to discuss why the current locality-pay system doesn't work and why the state should follow the federal model instead.

Members are prepared to talk about the difficulty of trying to live on a salary that lags behind the increases in the cost-of-living downstate.

Pay increases for high cost-of-living areas have not kept pace with soaring housing costs, forcing the state’s engineers, accountants, auditors and others to abandon their communities in search of more favorable economic climates elsewhere. The state’s failure to address this issue contributes to the problem of younger workers in particular being forced out of their communities.

Leaders from PEF will have a message for negotiators from the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations (GOER): “It's time for relief. It's time for pay equity among all state employees working in high-cost areas.”

PEF is the state’s second-largest state-employee union, representing 58,000 professional, scientific and technical employees. For more information, please call Darcy Wells, PEF director of public relations, at 518-785-1900 ext. 277 or 518-859-1274.

-30-