Kentucky's roughly 100,000 teachers and administrative staff will get an automatic pay raise in each of the next two years.
The state's two-year spending plan requires school districts to give employees a 1 percent raise in the 2015 school year and a 2 percent raise in the 2016 school year.
The raises are a victory for House Democrats, who pushed to make the raises mandatory. Senate Republicans wanted the raises to be optional because they were concerned some school districts could not afford to pay them.
Senate President Robert Stivers said not every school district will have enough state money to cover the cost of the raise. But he said lawmakers allowed districts to tap other state funds to help cover the cost.