$66.5M for SC state employee raises in House budget. Here’s how it would be distributed
State employees on the lower end of the pay scale will see a larger percentage increase than those at the high end, under a House Ways and Means budget proposal.
Under the plan, sent to the full House on Wednesday, budget writers want to spend about $66.5 million on state employee pay raises, while implementing recommendations from a Department of Administration compensation study released in 2024.
In a National Compensation Association of State Governments salary survey of 42 states, South Carolina ranked 34th for average salary, according to the Department of Administration.
The raises are part of a $14.6 billion spending plan approved by the Ways and Means Committee.
The study recommended raising the minimum pay for state employees, who would be placed in one of four categories, each with its own minimum pay.
The state would have four categories of employees: certified law enforcement, clinical, technology and general employees. Each category also has different grades of employee with their own minimum pay levels.
Certified law enforcement would have a minimum of $40,000 a year.
Clinical employees, which includes health care employees, would have a minimum of $28,000.
Technology employees, which includes people who work in information technology, would have a minimum of $37,200.
General employees, which includes all other roles, would have a minimum of $24,000 a year.
Under the Ways and Means plan, state employees would either be brought up their new minimum pay level, or receive a 2% raise, whichever is greater.
The current lowest starting salary for a state employee salary is $15,000 a year.
Trying to have larger percentage raises for employees at the lower end of the pay scale has been a focus of the Ways and Means Committee since state Rep. Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville, took over as chairman.
“What Chairman Banister has done over the last two years in identifying and recognizing and trying to make whole as much as possible our lower paid state employees is something that we really ought to applaud him for, because he did have to do it, but he chose to,” said state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg.
This story was originally published February 20, 2025 at 11:46 AM.
