Paid holiday to cost state over $4 million

JEFFERSON CITY -- The paid holiday that state workers will take Friday will cost Missouri more than $4 million.

Jacquelyn White, commissioner of Missouri's Office of Administration, said the state pays about $4.66 million in salaries and benefits each day for the approximately 56,000 people on the state payroll.

The paid holiday on Friday is not required by state law. As previous governors occasionally have done, Gov. Bob Holden in October issued an executive order granting state employees paid days off on the Fridays after Thanksgiving and Christmas. A woman in the governor's media office said Monday there hasn't been an order giving workers a paid day off the Friday after New Year's Day.

The federal government also is taking Dec. 26 off this year, said Mary Still, Holden's spokeswoman.

She said Holden felt strongly that he should give the extra days as a way to acknowledge that state workers were having to do more with less.

Of those 56,000 people, White said, between 10 percent and 20 percent must work on jobs related to public safety, including those with mental health facilities, the Missouri Highway Patrol and correctional facilities.

Those state employees will receive overtime pay.

Of the rest, White said, more than half probably would have taken the day off anyway.

Some Missourians question the extra holiday. They note that many private-sector employees will work that day. For many retail stores, the day after Christmas is one of the year's busiest.

Still said it was not a waste of taxpayers' money to do something positive for state workers by allowing them more time with their families during the holiday.

White said there were some small savings on days the state did not have full operations. That includes about a $35,000 reduction in utility costs per day on nonoperating days, she said.