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Board of Education Approves Pay Raises for Bus Drivers
The Board of Education unanimously approved pay raises for transportation personnel at its Sept 5 meeting.
The school board action:
- Increases starting salaries for bus drivers from $12.55 per hour to $13.11 per hour.
- Reduces the time it takes a bus driver to reach the $15.00 per hour threshold from 13 years to 7 years.
"I appreciate the dedication and commitment of Wake County bus drivers. This increase in pay is important as we work to retain these critical employees and recruit additional staff,” said Bob Snidemiller, WCPSS Senior Director for Transportation.
WCPSS Transportation would like to hire additional bus drivers. With this increase, Wake County bus drivers with 7 years of service working full-time will earn $15.00 per hour, along with paid leave time, membership in the NC State Health Plan and be vested in the NC Teachers’ and State Employees’ Retirement System.
Interested candidates can visit www.wcpss.net/careers for information about applying to work for WCPSS.
Bus drivers’ September paychecks will include retroactive pay to July 1, the first day of this budget year. The school board budget action follows final decisions by the state and county on education funding.
The state legislature approved $16.8 million of additional funding for bus driver pay beginning with the 2017-18 school year. Of that amount, WCPSS received an allotment of $2.2 million.
The school board approved WCPSS staff recommendations to use this state funding to revise the WCPSS Bus Driver Compensation Schedule to drive the starting rate of pay higher, provide increases to all steps and standardize differences based on seniority.
The school board action included approval of staff’s recommendation to revise Bus Driver Team Leaders’ pay schedule. The board used $88,000 from the 2017-18 Budget for Market Responsive Compensation to revise the Bus Driver Team Lead Schedule.
In each WCPSS transportation district, experienced bus drivers serve as Team Leaders, coordinating the work of a group of drivers.
Download the new salary schedule at www.wcpss.net/driver-salary-update