CSEA SEIU Local 2001 says SEBAC sees another culprit in the recruitment problem:\u00a0Tier IV pensions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
SEBAC \u2014 the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition \u2014 is the group of state employee unions that bargains over pension and health benefits.\u00a0The awkward part is that SEBAC agreed<\/a> to Tier IV.\u00a0It negotiated the 2017 deal that established the new pension tier; 83 percent of votes cast by union members approved the pension and health changes, and 15 of SEBAC\u2019s 16 unions endorsed them.\u00a0<\/p>\n Put simply, Tier IV covers most pension-eligible state employees hired since late July 2017. Workers still get a traditional pension, but they contribute more toward retirement than workers in the previous tier and also put 1 percent of their pay into a separate retirement savings account, which the state matches.\u00a0<\/p>\n There was a reason for the change:\u00a0Tier IV was designed to make retirement benefits for future state workers less expensive for taxpayers.\u00a0In other words, it wasn\u2019t imposed on the unions.\u00a0It was the deal they made.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now the unions want a do-over. \u00a0<\/p>\n CSEA says<\/a> Tier IV is a \u201ccentral focus\u201d heading into the 2027 pension and health talks and links the tier\u2019s alleged \u201cinadequacies\u201d to Connecticut\u2019s ability to \u201cbring in new talent.\u201d CSEA has not released a detailed bargaining proposal, so taxpayers don\u2019t yet know exactly what the unions will demand or what it would cost.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Where the Delay Shows Up\u00a0<\/p>\n DAS breaks time-to-fill into four stages. The final one, agency selection, begins when an agency receives a candidate list and ends when one or more candidates are hired. In August, the statewide median for that stage alone was\u00a069 days.\u00a0<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean somebody in HR spent 69 days staring at a r\u00e9sum\u00e9. The stage includes application review and selection procedures required by law, labor agreements and affirmative-action rules. But those aren\u2019t days spent waiting for applicants.\u00a0They come after the agency has a candidate list in hand.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the Workers\u2019 Compensation Commission, agency selection took 237 days in August, pushing total hiring time to 250 days. The Connecticut Siting Council reported 207 days overall, while the State Department of Education reported 189.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Different agencies hire for different jobs, so those figures don\u2019t explain any particular vacancy. They do establish a narrower point:\u00a0substantial delays can occur after Connecticut already has people eligible to hire.\u00a0<\/p>\n DAS Knows Speed Matters\u00a0<\/p>\n The state appears to agree. In 2023, DAS launched a start-to-finish hiring review with Deloitte and said the \u201cspeed of hiring\u201d was hampered by requirements in statutes, regulations and collective bargaining agreements.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then on July 28, DAS issued<\/a> a new hiring policy covering permanent classified executive-branch vacancies under its jurisdiction. It tells managers to fill vacancies \u201cas soon as possible,\u201d allows early application review to reduce time to fill and directs interview panels to reserve time early. Once a finalist is selected, managers and HR are told to time offers so Connecticut can \u201ccompete effectively in the job market.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The policy is too new to judge using August\u2019s completed hires. But the emphasis on speed makes the point:\u00a0DAS recognizes that hiring time affects Connecticut\u2019s ability to compete for workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Connecticut also isn\u2019t exactly recruiting with bargain-basement salaries. Connecticut also isn\u2019t exactly recruiting with bargain-basement salaries. According to an analysis<\/a> of U.S. Census Bureau data by Red Jahncke, the average Connecticut state employee salary reached about $101,500 in 2025 \u2014 second highest among the 50 states.\u00a0<\/p>\n So, Connecticut is offering comparatively high pay and still taking roughly three months to make a hire.\u00a0That makes the hiring process itself awfully difficult to ignore.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pennsylvania Cut the Clock\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ct_state_hiring_time_all_agencies_no_watermark-182x300.png\")
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