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Therese Frederick, chief of staff to Senate Democratic Leader Chris Smith, who has worked in state government nearly 30 years, was given a promotion to senior staff director and a 16.8 percent raise to $90,000. Gaetz’s chief of staff, Chris Clark, is the highest paid legislative employee making $150,000 a year.
The Senate Minority office’s communications director, Michelle DeMarco, an 11-year veteran of the Legislature was also given a 16.8 percent increase to $80,000. Betta is her counterpart in the Senate president’s office, making $120,000, and has the title of senior executive assistant.
Sherese Gainous, a 12-year legislative veteran and a senior administrative assistant in the Democratic Office, received a promotion and a 25 percent pay raise to $60,000.
“As far as our office went it was more a question of parity because of the growing gap between our office and the president’s office,’’ DeMarco said. “Based on skills and qualifications, salaries in our office were way out of line, so Sen. Smith requested some sort of parity and President Gaetz agreed.”
The House raises were based on meetings with the staff directors of each committee and a performance review, Duff said. “These increases were based on their recommendations for performance. Some of the raises were given due to promotions and increased responsibilities.”
Unlike many of the employees working for state agencies and law enforcement, who are members of a union and whose salaries are negotiated, the House and Senate staff are not affiliated with a collective bargaining group and their salaries can shrink or increase based on the will of the leaders elected to office.
Excluding legislators, the House had 528 full-time employees working as of February and the Senate had 376 employees as of last week.
Staff writer Steve Bousquet contributed to this report.
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