Letter: State must pay teachers on time or risk exodus
Recently, it has been reported that Hawaii’s public school teachers have not received their paychecks on time. Sadly, this is normal for Hawaii state employees who already have to wait a month to get paid for time worked, but also have to wait longer if their time sheets haven’t been turned in on time. This happened to me when I used to be a Department of Education substitute teacher.
I’m currently not working with the state and I’m hesitant to return mostly because of this very issue. Private employers tend to pay faster (my current employer pays me the following week’s Friday), which is great because the sooner I get paid, the sooner I can pay my bill collectors.
If the state wants to recruit and retain talent, it needs to start paying them faster. Otherwise, we will continue to take our talents to the private sector.
Pablo Wegesend
Moiliili
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