COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Nearly 500 state workers, retirees and educators headed to the Statehouse on Tuesday to tell legislators they need better pay and protection from higher insurance rates and reduced benefits.
Most of them wore red Coalition of Public Employees stickers. That's a new group formed of retirees, state workers and educators that brings the lobbying power of more than 370,000 people to bear on issues.
"The employees can no longer endure the hardship of a pay cut," Broadus Jamerson, director of the South Carolina State Employees Association told the crowd as it gathered in the Statehouse lobby.
State workers received an across-the-board wage increase of 1.5 percent three years ago. Some qualified for merit raises that averaged 1 percent. But the last two years have come with no increase. And during the past three years, rates for the state's health insurance plan have risen, benefits have been curtailed and out-of-pocket expenses have gone up, eroding paychecks.
"Everything keeps going up, but you bring home less money," Duncan Lett, an 11-year veteran of the state Transportation Department said.
Retirees also say they need more money to make up for higher health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses during the past three years.
The House Ways and Means Committee agreed to give all state workers a 2 percent raise two weeks ago. But workers say they need a raise of 5 percent to pick up ground lost to inflation and higher health insurance costs.
