Posted Monday, October 31, 2016 5:29 pm

FRANKFORT, Ky. – Some 2,600 state highway workers will be getting larger paychecks by January when raises averaging $3.20 per hour kick in, Gov. Matt Bevin announced Monday.

The wage hikes, the first for the crews since 2006, will affect specialized maintenance job classifications, including highway equipment operators, laborers, mechanics, machinists, welders and engineering technologists.

Bevin said the state highway jobs can be hard and thankless, but, he said, they're vital to the state’s transportation system, especially in the winter when the workers often spend overnights in snowplows and salt trucks.

“When it’s 2 in the morning, and there’s a blizzard coming through, everyone wants to be able to get to work the next day,” Bevin said. “Everyone wants their kids to get where they need to get to safely.”

Bevin said turnover in the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is 13 percent annually, forcing the agency to incur the cost of training replacements.

The higher wages will cost the state over $31 million a year, but, Bevin said, several cost-saving efforts, including cross-training of existing workforce, improved efficiencies of snow and ice operations and decreases in miscellaneous expenditures, will offset the difference of the adjustment.

With the raises, entry level pay for a new Transportation Cabinet employees will be $13.27 per hour.

Bevin announced the raises in Frankfort on Wednesday afternoon, flanked by state highway crews.

“Not often enough do we take time to thank the men and women who ensure that, both day and night, the rest of us to have clear and safe paths to work, school and elsewhere,” Bevin said. “This salary adjustment is long overdue, and I hope will show at least a small measure of the gratitude we feel for the hard-working Transportation Cabinet employees who risk their own safety on our behalf throughout the year.”