Nearly two weeks after the start of the fiscal year, and shortly after some employees began a social media campaign to raise awareness, the Office of the Colorado State Public Defender has disclosed to workers what their salary increase will be. 

For fiscal year 2023-2024, which began on July 1, the legislature authorized an additional $16 million aimed at increasing pay for the public defender’s office. Data from the office showed salaries are below the market rate across the board, with deputy public defenders earning $69,000 a year on average, and entry-level investigators, paralegals and administrative assistants making far less than that.

But as of July 1, the office had yet to send out notice of the new pay rates – and did not do so until this week.

“The delay in getting your letter does not impact when you will receive your pay increase or the amount you will receive. New salaries will still be effective on July 1, 2023, and will be in the July 31, 2023 paychecks,” human resources director Veronica Sandoval Graves wrote to employees on June 28.

Two weeks later, on July 12, Sandoval Graves indicated that salary letters would be delivered “this afternoon.”

By that time, the Defenders Union of Colorado, which represents approximately 45% of eligible workers, had begun a “Show Us the Money” campaign on social media. A series of videos drew attention to the lack of notice about employees’ new salaries.

Megan Ring, the head of the public defender’s office, sent an officewide email on Thursday explaining the delay in incorporating the $16 million in raises was complicated by the switch to a new system of calculating compensation, which is intended to “reward longevity.”

“While we understand some people were frustrated at the pace of this process, this was a huge undertaking involving many people and we worked as efficiently as we could given the importance of these changes to each and every one of you,” she wrote. “There is no real way to compensate each of you for the work you do every day advocating for our clients in such an incredibly unjust legal system, but we will continue to focus our budget requests on providing you compensation and resources to be the best advocates you can be.”

A spokesperson for the union said it was “seeing this as a victory,” and attributed the office’s quick response to the social media campaign and a related open records request DUC filed to obtain the new pay grid. The public defender’s office has not yet formally recognized DUC, as it is a “pre-majority” union.

The office told Colorado Politics it sent the letters, more than 1,000 in total, “as quickly as that process would allow.” 

“This was done for each employee across the 29 new job classifications that had to be created for all offices. It presented a substantial amount of work that, first and foremost, had to be done carefully and responsibly,” said the office in a statement, adding that it had communicated about the delays to employees.