NC Senate offers bigger raises for governor and elected leaders than state workers

The North Carolina Senate budget proposal would give single-digit raises to state employees and teachers, but a substantial hike to the governor and other top elected officials.

The Republican-controlled Senate’s spending plan would give the governor a raise of nearly $40,000, or 22.5%, over the next two years. Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, currently earns $165,750. That’s $7,138 more than the previous year. If the Senate’s proposal becomes law, Cooper would get a raise to $198,120 as of July 1. That is a $32,370 raise.

The following fiscal year, the governor would make $203,073, according to the budget. Cooper’s term is up at the end of 2024, and he cannot run for a third consecutive term.

The minimum salary for a state employee is $15 per hour, which is $31,200 a year.

The Senate wants to give 5% raises over the next two years to state employees, and an average of 4.5% to teachers.

The major parties’ frontrunners for the 2024 governor’s race are Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein and Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson. Stein and Robinson, like Cooper, serve on the Council of State, which is the group of 10 statewide elected officials.

Council of State members would also get hefty raises. All Council of State members, aside from the governor, currently make $146,421, which was a raise of $6,305 over the previous year.

In the Senate’s proposal, those Council of State members — lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, labor commissioner, insurance commissioner, agriculture commissioner, superintendent of public instruction and auditor — would see their salaries rise to $168,384 over two years. They would see an increase to $157,403 starting July 1, before the rest of the raise in the 2024-25 fiscal year.

The median household income in Raleigh for 2021, the latest numbers from the U.S. Census, is about $73,000.

Compared to other states, North Carolina’s governor would join some of the highest-paid governors with salaries topping $200,000 a year. Other states have given significant raises to top elected officials. In South Carolina, some state officials who had been making less than $100,000 a year had their pay hiked. News 19 in Columbia, S.C., reported in 2022 that the attorney general’s pay more than doubled, to $208,000.