PERS officials get double digit pay raises

Top officials at the Public Employees Retirement System are getting double-digit pay raises.

Executive Officer George Pyne told the legislative Retirement and Benefits Committee Wednesday the top three, including himself, will get 14 percent raises this year and at least 4 percent more next year.

He said several other key employees were also getting significant pay hikes.

For Pyne, the raise works out to 20.5 percent to $116,634 a year. For his investment officer, the raise will total 18.6 percent to $106,468, and for the operations officer 24.2 percent more to $101,723.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said the raises "stand out" from other state workers.

"Those are pretty hefty jumps," said Raggio. "When we look at the raises we gave state service, those are certainly more."

Pyne agreed but told the committee that a salary survey of other states around Nevada shows that, even with those raises, the workers will be at or below their counterparts in other systems.

He said the university system, for one, was trying to hire away some of his people.

"We want to stay competitive," he said.

Retirement Board Chairman Charles Silvestri backed the increases, saying they are justified to maintain the high quality staff running the retirement system, which serves more than 82,000 public employees in Nevada. The legislative committee headed by Ways and Means Chairman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, voted to approve the raises.