Director of SC agency that oversees child welfare receives $63K pay increase
The leader of the state agency in charge of the well-being of children is getting a $63,000 pay raise.
The Agency Head Salary Commission this week approved a pay increase for Department of Social Services Director Michael Leach to $250,000 from $187,000.
The commission is made up of eight lawmakers chosen by the House and Senate’s budget-writing committee chairmen and three appointees from the governor.
Leach, who was confirmed by the Senate in April 2019, has not had a raise since joining the agency. He was appointed by Gov. Henry McMaster after spending more than 10 years with the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, including time as the agency’s deputy commissioner for child programs.
His tenure with the South Carolina agency is longer than previous DSS directors, who have averaged 18 months in the position. No one has stayed at the helm longer than two years.
Leach took over the agency as it works to meet its promises under the settlement of the “Michelle H.” lawsuit, which sought reform of the state’s foster care system. Settled in 2016, the case showed that the state has overly relied on placing foster children in group home or congregate care settings rather than family-like settings and that the state did not meet medical and food needs of children in foster care.
The state also had high caseloads for social services caseworkers, along with high turnover, which led to case management issues.
In recent years, agency leaders have raised pay for agency employees. In the 2021-22 budget, lawmakers spent an additional $29 million on child welfare efforts, which included increased foster family board payments and salary increases for child welfare case managers as a part of the Michelle H. federal lawsuit agreement.
Last year, the agency also gave a 5% pay increase for the remaining DSS employees who weren’t covered by the additional pay approved for child welfare case managers.
“What (Leach) has done for the agency since being there, the stability, the efforts he has made to get the agency back in order, I’m delighted to make this motion,” Senate President Thomas Alexander said.
Other raises approved by the salary commission
▪ Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum Executive Director Allen Roberson: $100,560, raised from $91,418
▪ Conservation Bank Executive Director J. Raleigh West: $136,772, from $124,338
▪ Higher Education Tuition Grants Executive Director Katie Harrison: $104,226, from $94,330
▪ Wil Lou Gray Opportunity School Director Pat Smith: $127,500, from $117,861
▪ Vocational Rehabilitation Commission Commissioner Felicia Johnson: $193,352, from $169,993
▪ Technical College of the Low Country President Richard Gouch: $179,366, from $163,060
▪ Central Carolina Technical College President Kevin Pollock: $218,500, from $190,000
▪ Aiken Technical College President Forest Mahan: $187,442, from $170,402
▪ S.C. ETV’s Acting Director Stephanie Cook had her salary set at $175,000.
