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Only a couple years ago, Rutgers University conducted a study that said Missouri state workers were the lowest paid in the county.

Bradley Harmon is the president of the Communication Workers Association, a union that came to help employees of the state retain all of their money.

"The way that the budget cuts have happened, in many places, we honestly aren't able to do the minimum basic that we need to do for people who need really important help," Harmon said.

State workers unions said they came out not just to protect what little the workers had left, but also, to get a conversation going with legislators about how to turn things around.

Harmon says he knows where to start.

"We think that what the legislature needs to be focusing on is finding the means to pay for critical state services that are now entering into their 4th year of cuts. It's gotten really bad," he said.

Rep. Stephen Webber of the 23^rd district agreed, saying that some bills passed were not in the best interest of state workers.

"The general assembly has made a decision, that instead of asking corporations to pay what they had in the past. we're going to ask Missouri workers to do what they've done with less” Webber said. “...that's what's happened in the last couple of years, and we're trying to correct it."

Correct it with a pay raise on the House's budget proposal for the next year, which he says is not a whole lot, but it's a start.

"They haven't had a pay raise in almost five years. So, we're talking about doing a two percent raise, a modest raise, for workers that make under $70,000 a year," Webber said.

State workers say they are ready to get the ball rolling on plans for more pay raises, and to stop any further budget cuts.

"You know, the definition of insanity is to continue to do the same thing that's not working over and over again...it's time to stop being insane in the legislature in Missouri."