South Carolina State Employees Association
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COMPENSATION HEALTH INSURANCE RETIREMENT PLAN OTHER BENEFITS
SCSEA ® 1325 Park Street, Columbia, SC 29201
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*We believe that public service is important to our community, state and nation, that it demands integrity, impartiality and sense of justice, requiring at all times that the public interest be placed above any personal concern. As state employees, we believe ours is an honorable profession dedicated to bettering the lives of those we serve.*
SCSEA CREED
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2014 SCSEA Legislative Agenda
Core Legislative Objectives:
Compensation Health Care Insurance Retirement Benefits
Over the last five years, employees received Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) totaling 3% compared to an increase of more than 11% in the Consumer Price Index for Wage Earners (CPI-W). In other words, the CPI-W was nearly three times (75%) higher than the corresponding COLA over the same period.
The SCSEA is committed to ensuring state employee pay does not continue to fall further behind market rate. The state’s compensation and classification system was reformed almost twenty years ago. The new banding system has produced a growing deficit between the CPI-W and COLA since the implementation of reform in 1996.
Since 1996 the state’s population has grown by more than 1 million. At that time, the state had almost 80,000 appropriated FTE positions. As of September 9, 2013, according to the South Carolina Enterprise Information System, SCEIS, statewide pay grade report, the total number of classified FTE employees is 46,846.
Closing the gap between inflation and employee pay is important not only in terms of basic fairness, but the effect of wages falling below the market base line also negatively impacts the state’s retirement system.
Maintaining salaries commensurate with inflation and market value is fundamental to the long term stability of the state’s retirement system. The negative decline in employee and employer contributions correspondingly decreases retirement funding capital and consequently investments returns.
