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Texas Payroll/Personnel Resource

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Agency-Specific Provisions
Texas Juvenile Justice Department Hazardous Duty Pay

Background

Certain employees of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD), formerly the Texas Youth Commission, perform hazardous duties and are eligible for hazardous duty pay.

Eligibility Requirements

To be eligible to receive hazardous duty pay, an employee of TJJD must:

  • Routinely be in direct contact with youth placed in a residential facility of TJJD.
    – or –
  • Routinely be in direct contact with youth released under the supervision of TJJD.
  • Be an investigator, inspector general, security officer or apprehension specialist employed by the office of the inspector general of TJJD.

An individual’s ceasing to be a state employee or ceasing to work in a position eligible to receive hazardous duty pay sometime during the month does not affect the individual’s hazardous duty entitlement for that month. The full amount of hazardous duty pay must be paid to the individual.

Note: Employees who work in TJJD’s central office are not eligible to receive hazardous duty pay.

Pay Amount

Generally, the amount of hazardous duty pay that TJJD pays monthly full-time state employees (employees who are normally scheduled to work at least 40 hours per week) is $10 for each 12-month period of lifetime service credit accrued by the employee. Lifetime service credit is applicable only to an employee in a hazardous duty position, and is the sum of all periods of employment in a hazardous duty position during the employee’s state employment history. Periods of employment in a hazardous duty position at a community or junior college are included in lifetime service credit. Lifetime service credit is used in the calculation of the effective service date for hazardous duty pay.

Exception for Certain Grandfathered Employees

The amount of hazardous duty pay TJJD pays monthly full-time state employees whose compensation during any month before August 1987 included hazardous duty pay that was based on total state service performed before May 29, 1987, is the sum of:

  • $10 for each 12-month period of state service credit (the sum of all periods of employment regardless of whether the held position entitled the employee to hazardous duty) the employee finished accruing before May 29, 1987.
    – and –
  • $10 for each 12-month period of lifetime service credit accrued after the date the employee finished accruing the last 12-month period of state service credit, which must be before May 29, 1987.

Part-Time Employees

Part-time state employees earn hazardous duty pay at a rate that is proportional to the full-time rate.

Sources

Texas Government Code, Section 659.303; 34 Texas Administrative Code Section 5.39; attorney general opinion DM-376.