On Your Dime: State employees clock more than $200K in overtime amid staffing shortages
by TAMARA SACHARCZYK, NBC 10 NEWS
Overtime budgets are exploding for some state agencies in Rhode Island, as employees are forced to put in extra hours due to staffing shortages.
Data obtained by the NBC 10 I-Team shows a correctional officer at the ACI was the top overtime earner in fiscal year 2024, making $301,196 in overtime alone, more than tripling his $86,000 salary.
In a sit-down interview with the NBC 10 I-Team, Department of Corrections Director Wayne Salisbury said many correctional officers willingly take the extra work.
“Overtime is part of law-enforcement, it’s part of corrections and always has been,” Salisbury said.
While that may be true, the DOC had a 13% vacancy rate as of this summer, prompting 407 examples of involuntary mandatory overtime in a span of just two months and an increase in lockdowns and modified recreation for inmates.
“Staffing nationally is an issue for correctional officers,” Salisbury said.
Year-over-year, overtime costs at the corrections department jumped by $7,310,290 in FY 2024 compared to 2023.
The Department of Corrections is not the only agency facing big overtime bills due to staffing shortages.
The state’s second top overtime earner is a registered nurse at the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals, or BHDDH.
He made $234,707 in overtime in FY 2024, nearly doubling his annual $119,000 salary.
“We completely agree that it’s a lot of overtime.” Eleanor Slater Hospital Chief Executive Officer Brett Johnson said.
Johnson says staffing shortages became an issue in 2019 and only worsened during the pandemic, when the vacancy rate for nursing positions skyrocketed to 25%.
“The impact on the hospital has been mitigated through a lot of the different activities, including temporary staffing agencies and traveling nurse agencies that we have partnered with to cover some of that gap,” Johnson said.
Similar to corrections, Eleanor Slater Hospital, which is an acute care hospital with an inpatient psychiatric unit, must meet staffing demands for safety purposes.
If BHDDH can’t make up the shifts with the help of outside agencies, it must use overtime to close the rest of the gap.
Data show 32 medical workers at BHDDH earned over $100,000 in overtime in FY 2024.
The agency spent $20 million in overtime, a $1,337,439 increase from 2023.
When asked whether the employees are being overworked, Johnston responded, “We monitor that very carefully. We are not seeing a lot of signs of burnout in these individuals. A lot of them have become quite accustomed to doing this and it’s kind of a lifestyle for them.”
Right now, BHDDH would need to hire 50 to 60 nurses to fill all vacant positions.
The agency has ramped up recruitment efforts, but Eleanor Slater Hospital Chief Nursing Officer Kimberly Kane says the competition for nurses is fierce.
“Naturally, we are competing with all the other agencies that are also trying to find these nurses,” Kane said. “If we had the opportunity to spend the money on having more employees instead of having overtime, of course that’s the priority.”
Johnson is hopeful matters will improve, as retirement numbers begin to stabilize. “The recruitment effort should begin to backfill these positions,” he said. “We have increased the wages, and we have also looked at some of our working conditions to recruit.”
BHDDH budgets about $375,000 every pay period to cover overtime costs.
“That is reducing and we are bringing those hours down, very slowly, but we are bringing them down and they’re headed in the right direction,” Johnston said.
Other state employees to earn more than $100,000 in overtime in FY 2024 include several employees at the Department of Children, Youth and Families, the Department of Human Services, the Department of Public Safety, and the University of Rhode Island’s basketball coach.
To see the numbers for yourself, search the Rhode Island Transparency Portal.
On Your Dime looked at overtime budgets in Rhode Island state agencies. (WJAR)