Bill Would Make State Employees Pay More for Retirement

A proposal by legislators to shore up South Carolina's pension system requires public employers to collectively put an additional $827 million into workers' benefits over the next six years.

The proposal advanced unanimously Wednesday by a joint House-Senate pension study committee caps workers' contributions. Legislators say South Carolina's public employees already pay among the nation's highest rates for benefits.

Beginning July 1, workers in the state's main retirement plan would contribute 9 percent of their salaries. Officers and firefighters in the smaller law enforcement plan would contribute 9.75 percent. That means an additional $42 million would collectively come out of the paychecks of about 223,000 employees in the two plans next fiscal year.

But their rates wouldn't rise again, while their roughly 850 taxpayer-supported employers would contribute increasingly more through 2023.