An Alabama lawmaker has filed a bill that would allow local boards of education to pay their employees on a semi-monthly basis.
House Bill 62 sponsored by Ontario Tillman, D-Bessemer, would make local school boards pay employees on the first and 16th of each month with exceptions for weekends, holidays and the first day of October, the start of the budget year. Currently, teachers are paid once a month.
“There is a need to kind of change how we do things when it comes to education. And I want to look at a different way forward,” Tillman said in a phone interview Tuesday. “I think that if we can start with changing the teacher pay from once a month to semi-monthly, we can provide different incentives for our teachers and make Alabama an attractive state to come and teach, as well as allow us to retain our teachers here as well.”
Tillman, who was a special education teacher for 10 years, said he has heard several complaints from teachers about how often they’re paid.
“I understand exactly the complaints from a number of teachers as well as other school board employees. So it would affect the full scope of education. It would change the pay for every educator and staff personnel within the school system,” he said.