More than 200 state employees rallied Tuesday for higher pay raises than are in the legislative budget proposals.
State employees are pushing for 3 percent raises, or $1,100, which ever is more, plus one time $1,000 bonuses, Lynn Bonner reports.
The budget proposal has 2.75 percent or $1,100 raises for state employees.
The higher base pay raises would cost an additional $8 million over what's budgeted, according to State Employees Association of North Carolina executive director Dana Cope, and the bonuses would cost between $20 million and $25 million.
The 3 percent raises would bring state employees' raises in line with those proposed for teachers.
"Why do we want to split off teachers and state employees?" Cope asked.
More after the jump.
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The rally featured state employees pounding noise-maker to rousing music and speeches. Pamela Thorpe, a 34-year-old health care technician who works at Central Prison, said state employees need meaningful pay raises.
She was introduced with the song, "She Works Hard for the Money." Thorpe said she could relate to the lyrics.
"It's a stressful environment to work in," she said of her job in the prison. "We work with the most dangerous people in society."
Thorpe, who lives in Garner, said her family struggles to make ends meet even though her husband works two jobs.
"There are times I didn't have money to make it to work," she said. "The gas is too high."
Rep. Ty Harrell, a Raleigh Democrat, drew cheers when he spoke in favor of collective bargaining.
SEANC is pushing a bill that would allow collective bargaining for public employees and another that would shift control of the state pension fund away from the state treasurer and to an independent board of trustees.
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