State workers' pay after inflation stuck in reverse

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Calling for higher wages and stable health insurance costs and benefits, more than 300 state workers are expected to rally at the Statehouse on Tuesday.

The news hasn't been all bad for state workers this year. After two years of no raises, House budget writers are putting a 2 percent raise into the state's $5.3 billion budget.

That's "not news enough," said Nelle Tyler, a 27-year veteran of Aiken Technical College.

Inflation and health insurance costs are eroding pay as some look to retirement. "We've been going backwards," Tyler said.

In the past three years, inflation has grown 6.8 percent while the typical worker saw a 1.5 percent general wage increase, according to the South Carolina State Employees Association.

Workers will ask legislators for a 5 percent cost of living raise, freezes in state health plan premiums and benefits and yearly 1 percent increases in retiree pay.

Times have seldom been tougher for state employees, association director Broadus Jamerson said. Half of the state's workers make $30,000 or less a year and a quarter of would qualify for food stamps if they were supporting families of four solely on their paychecks, he said.

Rep. Herb Kirsh, D-Clover, has pushed for raises even as the state navigated its worst fiscal years since the Great Depression. "We need to give them a raise to help their morale a little bit" and to get around the perception legislators have "forgot about them," he said.

Still, "they're not going to gain whole lot out of this," Kirsh said. Higher insurance costs could consume much, if not all, of the raises.

The state health insurance plan is expected to need nearly $50 million more to keep benefits at the current level. The House budget calls for selling part of the state's car fleet and shutting down some maintenance facilities to generate $25 million to partially cover the increase.

"The $25 million is the top end of what would come in the from of sales of the fleet," said House Ways and Means Chairman Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston. He's heard estimates as low as $10 million.

If the sales fall on the short side, Harrell said legislators will have to find money elsewhere or workers will face leaner benefits or fatter premiums.

Workers worry about more than the immediate concerns of covering those costs. The lack of general pay increases puts workers behind in accruing retirement pay.

"The less money we make, the less money that goes into our calculation when it's time to retire," said Vivian Baxter, a 20-year state employee. That's "going to affect me for the rest of my career as well as the rest of whatever retirement I have."

"It is a legitimate concern," Harrell said, but there's little the state can do in tight budget times. Salary increases depend on what taxpayers are willing to pay, Harrell said.

They're paying for fewer state workers already.

Several rounds of budget cuts, attrition and layoffs have thinned the state's full-time payroll by 5,700 people to about 63,035 state workers in the past three years, state Budget and Control Board spokesman Mike Sponhour said.

Workers have seldom complained publicly.

With job security concerns, workers "are reluctant to speak their mind," Baxter said. "If your job was subject to question, wouldn't you be afraid?"