Committee
Education
Author
Dennis DeBar, Jr.
Session
2022 Session
SB 2424 would give school districts the option to implement a bimonthly payroll system, allowing teachers to receive paychecks twice a month. Currently, state law requires Mississippi school districts to pay teachers once a month.
Opting-in to a bimonthly payroll system would provide teachers with two equal payments a month based on their salary, rather than one. Along with chronically low teacher salaries (the average Mississippi teacher salary in 2021 of $46,843 ranks last in the nation), the financial woes of Mississippi teachers are exacerbated by current state law which mandates that teachers only receive one paycheck a month. In addition to a pair of competing proposals to raise teacher pay this session, SB 2424 seeks to address financial concerns of teachers. Particularly given recent concerns over a potential exodus of teachers within the next year, allowing a bimonthly payroll system would be a welcome change. However, under SB 2424, school districts may still opt to pay teachers once a month.
On January 27, SB 2424 passed the Senate. It will now be transmitted to the House.
Updates
2/24/22 Update:
On February 24, the House Education Committee passed SB 2424 with a “strike-all” amendment. With the strike-all amendment, the House essentially wrote their own version of the bill, a process which will require the Senate to concur with the changes before the bill is sent to the Governor.
The revised text is not currently available online, but based on discussions at the 2/24 House Education Committee meeting, there do not appear to be substantive changes from the original bill. SB 2424 is now awaiting action on the House floor.
3/10/22 Update:
On March 9, the House passed SB 2424 as amended. The amendments include a reverse repealer. The bill now goes to the Senate for concurrence, though the Senate will almost certainly invite conference due to the reverse repealed.
3/17/22 Update:
On March 16, the Senate voted to invite conference on SB 2424 as amended by the House. This was expected due to the reverse repealer, though it is possible that conferees may make additional changes to the bill.
On March 17, the Senate named Education Committee Chairman Dennis DeBar, Education Committee Vice-Chairman David Blount, and Senator Chris Johnson as conferees. The House has yet to name conferees.
3/28/22 Update:
On March 26, conferees for SB 2424 filed a conference report for the bill. The conference report removes the reverse repealer as well as a provision (originally added by the House) that security personnel and school resource officers be allowed to serve as traffic control officers. The final version of this bill would simply give school districts the option to implement a bimonthly payroll system, allowing teachers to receive paychecks twice a month.
The conference report now faces an up-or-down vote in the House and in the Senate. If approved by the House and Senate, SB 2424 would go to the Governor to be signed into law.
4/4/22 Update:
On March 30, both the House and the Senate voted to adopt the conference report. SB 2424 is now awaiting the Governor’s signature.
4/25/22 Update:
On April 14, Governor Tate Reeves signed SB 2424 into law. The bill will go into effect on July 1.