California Spends $800 Million Overtime Pays on State Hospitals' Employees

October 21, 2009

San Francisco - State employees from two Bay Area hospitals have received overtime pays amounting to thousands of dollars over the past five years, almost doubling their salary while others received no overtime work, according to state auditor.

While the state is facing a looming budget deficit due to recession, auditors found that the state government has spent $800 million overtime pays for some employees of the Napa State Hospital and the Mental Health and Development Services.

According to the findings, some nurses from Napa earned an average of $150,000 overtime every year while some employees from the mental health department received more than $150,000 each in overtime pay.

With this unequal distribution of overtime pays, State Auditor Elaine Howle urge legislators to impose a cap on voluntary overtime to evenly distribute the extra working hours among hospital employees.

In a letter sent to legislators, Howle said “excessive overtime work may put patients and employees at risk,” adding that “future contracts should include a provision that will limit the overtime work of a state employee.”

Between 2003 and 2008, the state spent $2.1 billion overtime pays to all its agencies including the Department of Fire Protection, the California Highway Patrol, the Department of Mental Health, the Department of Veteran Affairs, and the Department of Developmental Services. However, state auditors did not include overtime pays given to the employees of Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.