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Survey: Juveniles' guards underpaid
Associated Press
Published February 8, 2005
WEST PALM BEACH - The private employees who guard and mentor difficult juveniles in Florida's residential programs earn some of the lower wages in the nation, causing crippling staff turnover and endangering teens, some child advocates say.
The average pay for such workers in Florida is $17,398, or $8.36 an hour - about what they could make supervising fast-food workers or stocking shelves. That's less than a juvenile correctional officer makes doing the same job in Mississippi, Oklahoma, Alabama, South Carolina and Louisiana, the Palm Beach Post survey of 20 other states found.
Increasing numbers of lawmakers say they are convinced that the salaries need to be raised. Sen. Victor Crist, a Tampa Republican who chairs the Justice Appropriations Committee, said he will fight for enough money to increase the salaries of juvenile workers to $20,000 a year. The Legislature has not provided a substantial budget increase for the programs in 12 years.
[Last modified February 8, 2005, 00:21:16]
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