Pay, health care and retirement benefits are SEANC's core legislative objectives.  SEANC has worked diligently to ensure state employee pay does not fall further and further behind market rate.  In 2006 and 2007, SEANC secured the largest back-to-back pay raises in two decades.  The most recent pay raises for state employees includes the following: 

North Carolina: Public Services in Jeopardy » (released February 2009)

The people of North Carolina deserve the best. The state's 9 million citizens rely on state employees to make sure criminals are kept off our streets; to keep watch over the vulnerable population of those mentally unable to care for themselves; to make sure nursing homes and hospitals are inspected. We need state employees to make sure that our highly-traveled roads provide safe passage to work, family or church.

And yet, the state is facing short- and long-term problems fulfilling its obligation to efficiently provide the highest quality public services. Turnover, which cost the state $563 million in 2008, is expensive, inefficient and unwise.

The current economic downturn means that the state will need to provide more services for even more North Carolinians. We need quality public services now more than ever. And yet, noncompetitive salaries and inadequate health and retirement benefits all conspire to make it more difficult to attract and retain the experienced, quality employees North Carolina needs to provide the public services that help make our state a great place to live and raise our families.

Read the entire report to see why North Carolina’s public services are at risk and what can be done to correct turnover and improve quality.