We’ve sent emails to approximately 300 county employees who are set to join the State Public Defender on Oct. 1 with information about job title and salary.

Our staff worked closely with the Idaho Department of Human Resources (IDHR) to set the salary structure.

About 77% of SPD employees will receive a salary increase, 7% of employees’ salaries will remain the same, and 15% of employees will have a salary decrease from their current county pay rate. Most of the salary adjustments are based on length of service.

Our staff has reached out directly to the employees whose salary will be reduced. We understand how difficult that news is and are well aware of the sacrifice we are asking those employees to make.

What we found over the last few months are significant discrepancies in some pay rates across the state. We needed to level it out.

The SPD budget for fiscal 2025 is $49 million – and it must pay for the 12 institutional public defense offices and for the contract attorneys across the state.

State Public Defender Eric Fredericksen is committed to work with the Idaho Legislature to get the SPD the appropriation the agency needs to provide the best public defense as we move forward.

The salary structure for our employees and pay rates for contract and conflict attorneys for fiscal 2025 are a floor – not a ceiling.

We also want to remind all current county employees joining the SPD on Oct. 1 will be allowed to move up to 40 vacation leave and 40 hours of sick leave from their county leave balances. State medical insurance will cover SPD employees beginning Oct. 1.

If you have any questions, send them to info@spd.idaho.gov and we’ll get back to you.

We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to transform public defense in Idaho.