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Heather Kerrigan

Heather Kerrigan

Contributor

Heather Kerrigan is the author of GOVERNING's Public Workforce newsletter. Prior to joining GOVERNING in 2006, she worked in the Office of Congressman Ron Kind of Wisconsin. Kerrigan graduated from The George Washington University with a degree in journalism and mass communication.

A look back at how state and local government workers fared this year in terms of pensions, health care and jobs.
Most states have employee suggestion programs that financially reward workers for improving services and saving money. Here's how one works.
The city's new hiring approach has inspired many to take big pay cuts to work in government.
A first-of-its-kind report finds that the most effective way to reduce public workers' health expenses isn't popular cost-cutting moves like wellness programs, which rarely produce significant savings.
In an unusual approach to boosting employee engagement, the state is bringing in the unions to solve problems earlier.
Pennsylvania is saving $1 million a year and getting rid of the lag time when people start new jobs.
After years of cutting public workers' retirement benefits, states are slowly adopting common private-sector practices that automatically enroll employees in savings plans and automatically increase how much people put away each month.
After much pushback from unions, big cities like Detroit and Chicago are now making their retired employees get health care on the exchanges or through spouses.
In several states, public employees anticipated pay raises this year. But in some states, all they're left with is disappointment.
More job openings, pay raises and better benefits all appear to be on state and local government managers' minds.