The legislature is finalizing the state budget right now — and some legislators want to permanently eliminate thousands of vacant state positions before it's done.
These aren't ghost jobs. They're unfilled positions that exist because North Carolina doesn't pay enough to fill them. Cutting them doesn't solve the problem. It makes it permanent.
Your legislator needs to hear from you today. Use the form below to send a message directly to your state representative and senator. You can send the message as written or personalize it in your own words — either way, it takes less than two minutes and matters.
Don't let Raleigh make this decision without hearing from the people who do the work.

Tell Your Legislator: Don't Cut State Jobs. Fix the Pay.

As your constituent and a North Carolina state employee, I urge you to oppose permanently eliminating vacant state positions.

More than a third of those vacancies exist because our salaries aren't competitive. NC correctional officers earn the 3rd-lowest starting salary in the country. State nurses are paid $22,000 below the national average. These aren't positions we don't need — they're positions we can't fill at the wages currently offered.

The solution is competitive pay and adequate appropriations, not position elimination. Please make that investment in this budget.

Save the Jobs

State Employees Association of North Carolina

I am a North Carolina state employee writing to ask you to oppose permanently eliminating vacant state positions in the budget.

Those positions are empty because the state doesn't pay enough to fill them — not because the work isn't needed. I cover that gap every day. Cutting the positions doesn't solve the problem. It makes it permanent.

Please invest in competitive pay and oppose position elimination in this budget.

Respectfully,

Don't Cut the Jobs. Fix the Pay.

Fill jobs, don't cut them

I am a state employee and resident of your district writing to oppose eliminating vacant state positions in the budget.

When a position goes unfilled, the need doesn't disappear — it falls on the people still showing up, and on the communities that depend on those services. North Carolina has added two million residents since 2009 but less than 1% to its state workforce. We cannot serve a growing state with a shrinking workforce.

Please use this budget to invest in competitive pay and fully staffed state government.