SPOKANE, Wash. — In an effort to combat the labor shortage and support service growth, Spokane Transit Authority is offering thousands of dollars for new and current employees through 2023.
New employees can receive $1,500 once hired and an additional $1,500 will be available after a 6-month probation period. This brings the total hiring bonus to $3,000 if someone is employed by STA by the end of 2023.
New hires and current employees are eligible for up to $6,000 in retention bonuses. The money is distributed over three $2,000 installment periods. The day someone is hired determines how much money they could receive.
- July 1, 2022 to November 30, 2022
- December 1, 2022 to May 15, 2023
- May 16, 2023 to November 30, 2023
Chief Operations Officer Brandon Rapez-Betty said these incentives will benefit STA long term.
"We have some expansion targets over the next two years," Rapez-Betty said. "And with the current labor shortage, we recognize that STA needed to be doing something different to stand out among employers here in the Spokane region. So, that's where we got the background for the hiring and retention incentives."
The money comes from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
Rapez-Betty said COVID-19 took a toll on STA.
"In that first phase, we did reduce service by about 11%," Rapez-Betty said. "And that was because we cancelled the commuter routes, the express routes, because people weren't using them to go to work during the shutdown. Then, we did see during the Omicron spike, a significant episode of absenteeism. So people were either out because of exposure or because of illness or illness in their family. And we did have to reduce the service again temporarily."
Rapez-Betty said this incentive will help prepare STA as it moves to launch the City Line service system. The launch is projected for July 2023.
Since advertising the offer, Rapez-Betty said there has been a significant jump in bus driver applications.
STA is seeing its biggest class of prospective drivers with 18. According to Rapez-Betty, classes before this year maxed out at 12 drivers.
Despite the increase in driver applications, Rapez-Betty assures the bonus incentives are available for all STA positions.
"Our philosophy is that it takes every single employee at STA to deliver transit service to our region," Rapez-Betty said. "And so that retention incentive and hiring incentive is available for all positions."
Rapez-Betty said this is a "once in a very long while opportunity," and will likely not be offered again unless certain factors force a pandemic and another significant labor shortage.