We’ve won Step Pay and Awards that reflect our careers and time served.

After a long fight and a lot of hard work by a lot of our members, our union has won a new Step Pay plan and a Total State Service Award which, once funded in the legislature, finally gives us the respect we deserve by recognizing our career paths and honoring our years of service.

Step Pay by Time-in-Occupational Group

Signed by COWINS and the Governor yesterday, the Step Pay 2.0 MOU means that once funded, starting July 1, 2027, steps will be calculated based on time-in-occupational group, rather than time-in-job series.

This is a big win for the many state employees who have transferred or have been promoted into positions outside of their original job series, without any compensation for years that should have counted towards their Step Pay.

The new Step Pay plan also opens up new career path opportunities for all state workers. So for example, Transportation Maintenance workers can move up as Heavy Equipment Operators, Correctional Officers can transition to Corrections Case Management, and Certified Nursing Assistants can become Registered Nurses, all without losing credit for the years they’ve already served in that same occupational group.

An Award for Total State Service

We also won an annual cash award that finally recognizes our total years of state service, regardless of our job classification, job series, or occupational group.

The Total State Service Award starts in a state employee’s third year of service and increases in amount over time, with more substantial awards in milestone years.

For example, if by June 30, 2027, you have worked with the state for ten years, and score a 3 or above in your 2027 final performance evaluation, you’ll be eligible for an award of $1,000 on January 1, 2028.

That next year, when you’ve hit 11 years and if you score a 3 or above on your 2028 evaluation, you’ll receive an award of $300 for January 1, 2029, and so on until you hit your next milestone at 15 years.

Best of all, these cash awards are available on January 1 starting in 2028–a time of year when a lot of us need them most.

A Modest COLA for Everyone

When we won a pathway to creating a new Step Pay plan and recognition for total time in state service, we also secured a commitment to support allocating $61 million to fund it–anything left over was to go to a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for 2027. Once we were at the Step Pay workgroup table, we were able to secure support for an additional $11 million for a modest COLA of 1.25% for 2027.

Pending legislative funding, that COLA will go to all state employees, including those who haven’t yet crossed a milestone for Step Pay. That goes into effect on July 1, 2027.

Together, We Can Keep Winning the Impossible

Since we formed our union, we’ve been told repeatedly that everything we’ve wanted to win for state workers was impossible, but because we keep building our power by growing our membership, we keep winning anyway.

Winning the right to collectively bargain and winning back Step Pay were both supposed to be impossible, but we grew our membership and power, and fought for and won those in 2020 and 2022.

Then in 2024 we were warned about insurmountable challenges to improving Step Pay and recognizing time in state service. But we grew even more, persevered, and won.

Now we have the plan, the next fight is getting the legislature to fund it.

Time and again, we’ve seen that the more members we have, and the more active our members are, the stronger our union becomes. And the stronger our union, the more power we have to win for all state workers. That includes ensuring the state legislature funds our new Step Pay plan, COLA, and Total State Service Award.

Thousands of state workers are contributing as union members towards growing our power and securing the wins we all benefit from. Many WINS members also contribute to our Committee on Political Education (COPE) fund, and are a part of vetting and electing state legislators who will fight alongside us to fund our raises.

Join the thousands of your fellow state workers who are contributing to growing our power and securing the wins we all benefit from. Already a member? Find more ways to get involved in the fight for a Colorado we can all rely on.