Comment on WV correctional officers to get pay raise in September

By Phil Kabler Correctional officers in West Virginia prisons, regional jails and juvenile correctional facilities will get $1 an hour pay raises, starting Sept. 2. The state Personnel Board approved the plan Thursday. It includes a $2,080 increase in the base salary for Level 1 correctional officers, from $22,584 to $24,664, an increase of about 9 percent. "Today was the start of many good things I think could happen if we work together," Elaine Harris, international representative of the Communications Workers of America, said afterward. Harris has lobbied for years for increased pay for West Virginia correctional workers, who have dropped to the lowest pay level in the United States. "We used to say, 'Thank God for Mississippi,' but we're dead last," she said.