Jacqueline Tkac, president of the California Association Professional Scientists UAW Local 1115, speaks at a rally outside the California Department of Human Resources in Sacramento on Wednesday, Aug. 5. Union members rallied in support of salary increases and against Governor Gavin Newsom’s return-to-office mandate.
HG BIGGS
Sacramento Bee file
There’s a path toward financing raises that went unfunded for California state-employed scientists.
“The funding for our 2026 raises has been included in a budget trailer bill (SB & AB 113),” California Association Professional Scientists, UAW Local 1115, President Jacqueline Tkac wrote in an email to members. “This is a direct result of CAPS-UAW members showing up and being united in our fight to defend our contract.”
While the bill doesn’t explicitly mention the bargaining unit, its latest amendment increases proposed augmented salary expenses by about $8.8 million. State Sen. John Laird’s office confirmed the bill includes the raises. Legislators must approve the bill by midnight Monday before it goes to Gov. Gavin Newsom for consideration.
State scientists were slated to receive special salary adjustments ranging from 3% to 5% on July 1, according to previous Sacramento Bee reporting, but the Governor’s Office said those raises were contingent on the legislature setting aside funding. Since the legislature didn’t include the salary adjustments in the budget, state scientists didn’t receive these raises.
CAPS-UAW was informed of the unfunded status a day before raises were supposed to start.
The Department of Finance didn’t include the wage increases in the proposed budget. Nick Schroeder, an analyst with the Legislative Analyst’s Office, earlier this month said the only indication of unfunded raises was the omission itself.
State law does not require the lawmakers to fund raises, but failure to do so opens the door to renegotiate union contracts, bringing forth questions about the strength of these collective bargaining agreements.
“It seems like ignoring a negotiated contract is as easy as choosing not to fund what you negotiated and agreed to in (a contract), so what good is the process if that’s all it takes?” said state Sen. Kelly Seyarto, R-Murrieta, at a state Senate Subcommittee on Corrections, Public Safety, Judiciary, Labor and Transportation meeting earlier this month.
This story was originally published August 29, 2026 at 4:15 PM.
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Corey Schmidt is a watchdog reporter for The Sacramento Bee, focusing on Folsom, El Dorado Hills and Sacramento County’s eastern suburbs. Previously, he was the government watchdog reporter for the St. Cloud Times in Minnesota. Schmidt received his bachelor’s degree from DePaul University in Chicago and his master’s degree from Yale University.