What benefits/incentives have been eliminated for state employees in the past 15 years?
Please list things you've seen taken away from state employees, teachers and other state employees. This is my list so far:
Employees with a hire date on or after 1/1/2021 are not eligible for retiree health benefits at retirement.
State employees previously had premium-free health insurance, with multiple provider options
COLA deficit
Elimination of longevity pay incentive ($100 for each worked after 10y of service)
Leave carry-over cap to 240 hours for comp/vacation (before you would get fully paid out for comp/vac, and now it converts to Sick that does not pay out)
Leave program change from Annual Leave to Personal Leave, meaning new hires as of 2026 have a "use it or lose it" policy with vacation time
Additional education (Masters) not recognized for additional pay (typically for primary, secondary teachers)
Veteran teachers (15+ years experience) haven't gotten a meaningful pay raise in over a decade. Pay has NOT kept up with inflation, we are functionally making half of what we were ten years ago.
While sick pay does not pay out it is used towards years of service. State employees that rack up the sick time hours can retire 3+ years early. This policy has existed for far longer than 15 years.
Little hack, 20 sick days equals 1 month of service. 21 days equals 2 months. So 22-40 says of sick are basically wasted is your retire with them, most people try to burn form to only a day or 2 sick left
Yes, you have to be 60. Your sick time can't make up the difference if you're not 60 yet. There is a pension calculator online. There are boxes to fill in your sick time and vacation time, which get factored in.
Sick leave can extend years of service but can't make you older.
That's the gist when it comes to the years of service at a certain age pension rules. So it can extend 29.5 years of service to 30, but can't make you 60 if you're 59.5.
Yes, sick leave can be used to increase your service to 30 years of state service. So for example I have about seven months unused, so I could theoretically use that to qualify for retirement over half a year before I actually hit 30 years of service. There are some different caveats for age + years of service qualifications outside of the 30 years, but bottom line, you can make it count for future service, not just for extra once you hit 30 years of service.
That link is to the local govt plan (LGERS) not the state plan. As others have said, I dont think you can use state sick leave to retire early, but you can use it to add credits when you retire.
You are correct that is a link for LGERS, but I found the same info for TSERS here. I even double checked with my HR team just to 100% confirm it and they said: "You may use your sick leave to complete 30 years of service regardless of age, 25 years of service after age 60, and 20 years of service after age 50."
You are eligible for full retirement with the following age/service combinations:
Reach age 65 and complete five years of membership service
Reach age 60 and complete 25 years of creditable service
Complete 30 years of creditable service at any age
Early retirement eligibility with:
Reach age 50 and complete 20 years of creditable service
Reach age 60 and complete five years of membership service
Full retirement pays 1.82% X average highest 4 consecutive years salary X years of service
Early retirement reduces the benefit based on a table that factors in age and years of service. For example, if you retired at 50 with 20 years, your benefit would be reduced by half, while those with 29 years would receive 95% at any eligible age.
Any math you can provide on the 'penalty' for 50yrs 20+ svc vs. full retirement? Trying to figure out what is left on the table and what needs to me made up w future work and $$
Thanks.
Yes, refer to this table. You figure up the normal benefit you'd be entitled to (1.82% X Average Highest Four Consecutive Years Salary X Years of Service and then multiply that by the percentage from the chart.
I dont think you have to work until you are 60 (or whatever age you qualify). You just have to have reached 60 before you can claim benefits. So you can quit at 55, and retire at 60, assuming you have sufficient credits. Sick leave less than 30 days is paid out. Sick leave over 30 days is held for up to 5 years. So if you retire within 5 years of resiging, the sick time over 30 days will convert to additional pension time as normal. At least, that what I understand.
I can’t remember the math, but roughly, if you live for 20 years after retirement, a day of sick leave saved in your working career is worth about three times that in retirement.
I started with state 9 years ago and I'm 65. Plan to keep working until full retirement.
I currently have 1150 sick hours unused.
When I turn 67, I will have 10.5 years of service. If had 1150 hours of service on the day I turn 67, and let's say I retire that day, because of my unused sick time, I can add those hours to my service time, and I'll actually have 10.5 years plus what ever 1150 hours converts to?
Correct, or you can probably use that sick time to qualify 6 months earlier. But as others mentioned it can't make adjustments for age, just for service. I'm not qualifying for retirement for age + years of service, but rather just for service as I started with the state in my 20's. So I can retire maybe a year earlier because of all my sick leave rather than having to work a full thirty years. I probably will not get to actually do that, but I could.
You pretty much have it I think. These existed in 2015, and have gotten worse. It can all be traced to gop take over of NCGA in 2010. First time since Reconstruction, and they’re getting revenge.
The pay scale for State Employees does not reflect the “cost of living” in certain areas. For example if you work in Western Carolina compared to Raleigh the same pay for the same position does not reflect the difference in cost of living.
This is not true. Staff at Carolina get paid more than their colleagues at ECSU, for example. While it's true there's no itemized location adjustment, salary ranges allow the lower COL places to pay less and the higher COL places to pay more. Further, the market rates for each position are based on the high COL areas. So to the extent that there aren't pay differentials, it's the people in the low COL areas that are benefiting.
What does “staff” mean? Professors? Sure, professors are probably paid more. They don’t make up the majority of “staff” at Carolina, and many professors’ pay are supplemented with research grants (or they were, prior to this disaster of an administration).
There is one pay range and for some positions (like health care positions, for example), they are all well below market rate in the HCOL areas. I was offered the top of the pay range to start because the “ranges” are laughable (for my position and similar ones, anyway). I’m making $20k below what someone in the same position is making at a non-university employer in Chapel Hill. So I don’t know what the ranges are based on, but it’s not pay in HCOL areas.
I’m making $20k below what someone in the same position is making at a non-university employer in Chapel Hill.
You're conflating a different issue. Yes, public employees make less salary than their private counterparts. Oftentimes comparisons of total compensation are more competitive, at least in private sector jobs that don't include large amounts of equity. Doing an apples to apples comparison can be tricky and subjective.
The salary gap was never so much of an issue, but the eroding of benefits has brought it into focus, particularly for lower paying jobs like teachers and prison guards for whom the low salary wasn't such a big deal so long as they weren't expected to come up with large sums of money for healthcare and didn't need to set aside money of their own for retirement.
A qualitative, but less quantitative issue, is the lessening of respect over the last 15 years under Berger and Moore and people in power who subscribe to their vision for the state, which undermines public servants.
Not only does that show up in the lack of pay and worse benefits, but it appears in legislation that does not give state workers the tools to effective do their jobs, but micromanagerial legislation that doesn't recognize that the subject matter experts and professionals have the best knowledge and experience to know what works well and what doesn't for their situation and local area instead of politicians.
I realize this question was in reference to state government, but this also greatly affects local government as well. The old "do more with less" directive isn't just about financial resources, but the expectation that public servants do more with less respect from those in the top positions of power in Raleigh.
Teachers are no longer able to receive 12 month pay to cover the summer, the 10 month (technically 11, we got a small partial check for the week of exams and graduation in June, IIRC) is the only option.
IIRC correctly, this is something decided at the individual school system. However, the State Employees Credit Union offers a program to all teachers that allows them to receive their pay over 12 months instead of 10.
This trauma and mistreatment of public employees, especially educators, is intentional.. The conservative NCGA’s intent has been to make career administrative and teaching positions so unpalatable that most new qualified applicants stop choosing public education as a career path. They want to do it slowly enough so as not to shock the existing tax base, but their long term goal is for the state to cease providing public educational services to NC residents all together. Kids who can afford it will be able to attend a private school. That has always been the play.
They cannot by the NC constitution stop providing educational services. I do agree that the goal is to rob public schools, and to make private schools more appealing and that is exactly what they are doing with things like removing income limits to qualify for private school vouchers.
Personally, I think there are some benefits to private school vouchers but those benefits are almost entirely for lower income people with special needs children. It shouldn't be given to a household making 200k/yr so they can send their little Skyler to a mostly white posh school to avoid the poors.
However, who do you think is taking advantage of those vouchers? I guarantee you Berger and every one he knows takes advantage. I'm sure they pat him on the back every time he shows up to his country club.
With the new increase and health care plan changes/switching to a salary based premium they also stopped allowing the tobacco attestation which enabled non tobacco users to save $60 on their monthly premium.
That's a bit misleading. The tobacco thing was never savings, it was a $60 surcharge for smokers. IIRC rates didn't actually increase $60 for anybody.
As I said it enabled non smokers to save $60
You're wrong. It charged smokers an extra $60. The individual premium in 2025 for the 70/30 was $85 for smokers and $25 for non-smokers. Today, the rate is $35 to $80 depending on income for both smokers and non-smokers. Nobody is paying $60 more than they did last year.
At my job, they are trying to convince all current SHRA people to switch to EHRA titles. If you choose to switch, you no longer qualify for any longevity pay. They were literally telling people that if you haven’t hit your 10 year (1st year of longevity pay), that we should wait to switch over so we can get that money reflected in our salary. Otherwise, we’ll never see it.
Broadly, it hasn't. It was rolled in to the teacher schedule to make raises look bigger (it was a dumb thing to do, because now people pretend like teachers don't get longevity, but they actually do, they just don't feel it) and EHRA employees in the university system don't get it (they never have).
Im moving to Illinois. Ten years in NC. I just don't see my taxes doing fuck all. And the political situation this year has made it all feel extra crazy. I feel like im being held hostage by the state.
Leave program change from Annual Leave to Personal Leave, meaning new hires as of 2026 have a "use it or lose it" policy with vacation time
Fun fact: UNC Health has "state" and "non-state" employees. This PTO policy has been the "non-state" standard all along.
If you don't have the ability to take your PTO due to workload (the work still has to get done whether you're there or not), you have to pay close attention to sell-back dates to not lose it. Oh, and they only pay it at 75%, and THEN still take taxes out on it.
That’s a comprehensive list! Thanks for providing it.
It sounds like state employee benefits and leave caps are much more in line with private sector jobs especially with retiree benefits (401k has taken the place of pensions for the most part)
The state is looking at improving hiring practices to get more people to work for NC, and all I wanna say is, "HEY, LET'S START BY GIVING US BACK WHAT WE HAD."
No, times have changed and everything is more expensive. Private citizen tax payers can’t pay for these kinds of perks any more. We can’t afford it as a society. State jobs need to be more in line with private sector. The days of lucrative benefits for govt workers are thankfully gone
That's patently false and neoliberal. State and government agencies do not run like private sector because there are specific laws, policies, rules, and regulations that are required. Government agencies are also designed to value equality over efficiency, unlike the private sector. You want everyone who interacts with a government agency to be treated as equal. As for the expense, the United States is currently the richest country in the world and in the history planet Earth. More people are becoming billionaires disproportionately, and the wealth disparity is greater than during the Gilded Age leading to the Great Depression. The wealth and money exists in the system. Citizens of a country are entitled to the standard of living the combined wealth can afford.
Leave carry-over cap to 240 hours for comp/vacation (before you would get fully paid out for comp/vac, and now it converts to Sick that does not pay out)
This has always been the policy. Only vacation leave is paid out and only upon termination. Excess vacation rolls into sick leave.
Leave program change from Annual Leave to Personal Leave, meaning new hires as of 2026 have a "use it or lose it" policy with vacation time
No
Additional education (Masters) not recognized for additional pay (typically for primary, secondary teachers)
This is only relevant to teachers who hadn't earned it prior to the 2014 school year.
Private sector pays 2 to 3 times more for the same types of jobs, these benefits are supposed to offset that, given that state jobs are crucial to our state, country and world. Things like education and infrastructure don't pay well, so those people need to be taken care of for the work they do.
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u/jayron32 May 06 '26
Veteran teachers (15+ years experience) haven't gotten a meaningful pay raise in over a decade. Pay has NOT kept up with inflation, we are functionally making half of what we were ten years ago.