Alabama state employees are getting pay raises for the first time in close to a decade.

Gov. Kay Ivey on Thursday signed into law bills that provide a 3 percent boost for state employees, a 2.5 percent increase for school employees and a one-time bonus of $1 a month per year of service for retirees. Raises and bonuses will be effective in the new fiscal year starting October 1, 2018.

The education pay raise is expected to cost more than $100 million. The total $6.7 billion education budget for the next fiscal year also added $18 million to expand the state’s pre-kindergarten program.

A two-week teachers’ strike in West Virginia led to a 5 percent pay raise earlier this month.

(Associated Press, copyright 2018)