Nearly 1,000 of Tennessee's state employees are on food stamps because they aren't making enough money, state records show.
The records show that 968 Tennessee employees are receiving food aid through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The department with the highest tally of food-stamp recipients, 228, is the Department of Human Services—the branch of state government responsible for handing food stamps out.
According to the Tennessee State Employee Association, some state workers make as little as $14,000 a year. The medians salary for a state employee is $31,000 a year.
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TSEA sent a letter to Tenn. Gov. Bill Haslam and all 132 state legislators to "make them aware of these circumstances to ask that corrective actions be taken to fix a situation that the TSEA believes to be unacceptable for our state employees."
Food stamp eligibility depends on salary and the number of dependents. Generally, though, families are eligible when they have less than $2,000 in assets and their monthly incomes fall below 130 percent of the federal poverty level, or roughly $1,980 (about $23,800 a year) for a three-person family.
Haslam said last week he wants a study on state workers' salaries with the intent of keeping state salaries competitive with private industry. He did not, though, express any opinion on TSEA's food stamp report.
Early this year, Haslam oversaw a 1.6 percent increase in public pay statewide starting in July, the first such increase in four years.
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