For years, the California Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom have signed off on lucrative and unjustified contracts for the state prison guard union, despite warnings from the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office that legally required compensation studies were not being conducted. Now, the Newsom administration is pulling a fast one on California taxpayers with a flawed study to justify big giveaways to the prison guard union.

In 2019, while analyzing a proposed contract to give raises to the prison guard union, the LAO advised the Legislature that there was “no evident justification for proposed salary increase.”

Partly, that’s because the state failed to provide a legally required compensation study comparing prison guard union pay to comparable public and private employees for the Legislature to consider.

The last time such a report was produced, in 2015, using 2013 data, the LAO noted, the report found that California’s prison guards “received total compensation that was 40 percent higher than their local government counterparts.”

The Legislature ignored these warnings.

In 2021, coincidentally around the time of Gov. Newsom’s recall (in which the prison guard union dumped millions to defend him), the Legislature was again reminded of the need for a compensation study.

Again, the Legislature ignored the warnings from the LAO and  overwhelmingly approved a lucrative new contract for the prison guard union.

In January 2022, good government group Govern for California released its own compensation study for the California prison guard union.

Their conclusion?

“Using statistical methods to control for differences in education, experience, and other demographic factors, California correctional officer wages are about 55 percent higher than national average correctional officer wages (including California in the average) and 57 percent higher than other states,” they found.

California’s prison guards also benefit from generous pension and retiree healthcare benefits, which exceed national norms.

This is overall consistent with the state’s compensation study using 2013 data.

And yet, in April of this year, the state finally generated a compensation study, which compared prison guard pay to the pay of deputy sheriffs in counties like Los Angeles and Orange. As you might expect, deputy sheriffs make more than prison guards, giving the prison guard union ammunition and the Legislature cover, if they take it, to give the prison guard union lavish raises.

What happened here?

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Well, as the LAO last month, the Newsom administration decided to use a different methodology from past compensation studies. “This methodology was crafted through negotiations between the administration and the union,” the LAO notes.

In a statement to this editorial board, Govern for California criticized the study, calling it “wholly inadequate because it compares unequal occupations.”

Govern for California has called on the California Legislature “to hold the line in the next contract, which will come into effect upon the expiration of the current contract on July 2” of this year.

We echo this call from Govern for California.

The California Legislature must not fall for the cynical games played by Gov. Newsom and the prison guard union.