S.659

North Carolina S659 raises salaries for teachers, state employees, and community college employees, provides cost-of-living increases for retirees.

North Carolina S659 raises salaries for teachers, state employees, community college employees, and University of North Carolina employees. It provides cost-of-living increases for retirees of the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System, the Consolidated Judicial Retirement System, and the Legislative Retirement System. The bill expands the WAGE$ program to all 100 counties in North Carolina and creates a tax credit for qualifying employers. The tax credit is equal to the lesser of five percent of wages paid to employees during the taxable year or ten thousand dollars.