AN ACT TO require the hourly rate of the minimum salary for NONCERTIFIED PUBLIC SCHOOL EMPLOYEES to be at least seventeen DOLLARS per hour.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.(a)  The hourly rate of the minimum salary for all noncertified public school employees shall be at least seventeen dollars ($17.00) per hour. The State Board of Education shall increase the minimum of all salary grades and ranges it maintains for noncertified public school employees, as necessary, to achieve a minimum hourly rate of at least seventeen dollars ($17.00) per hour.

SECTION 1.(b)  Funds provided to local school administrative units pursuant to this act may be used to supplement the salaries of noncertified public school employees whose salaries are supported from non‑State funds to meet the minimum hourly rate of at least seventeen dollars ($17.00) per hour required by subsection (a) of this section. These funds shall not be used to supplant State or non‑State funds already provided for salaries of noncertified public school employees.

SECTION 2.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Public Instruction the sum of one hundred forty‑four million seven hundred thousand dollars ($144,700,000) in recurring funds for the 2024‑2025 fiscal year to implement the provisions of this act.

SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2024.