MADISON, Wis. -- A panel of state lawmakers has approved 5 percent pay raises for thousands of state employees over the next 18 months.

VIDEO: Watch The Report

The Joint Committee on Employment Relations voted unanimously to give employees immediate raises of 2 percent, followed by a 2 percent raise in July and a 1 percent increase in April 2009.

The raises apply to University of Wisconsin faculty and academic staff, nonunion executive branch employees and elected officials.

UW System President Kevin Reilly said the raises will not be enough to keep talented employees in Wisconsin. He said salaries at Wisconsin universities will fall further behind their peers.

The committee of eight lawmakers approved the raise, which will give 7,200 nonunion state employees, including lawmakers, bigger paychecks.

Currently, lawmakers make more than $47,000. Those elected in November 2008 will make more than $50,000, a 6.4 percent raise. The pay increase comes after some legislators argued that some colleagues weren't doing their jobs to pass the state budget on time.

But those critics said they believe the raise is fair.

"Legislators in this state are not overpaid. I think we were this session, but that has nothing to do with the potential for next session or the overall operation of the Legislature itself," said Marlin Schneider, D-Wisconsin Rapids.

"I can guarantee you that I was here every day on the conference committee doing my job, and, yeah, sometimes budgets take a long time but the main thing is to get it right," said Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon.

Lawmakers are getting the same raises as nonunion employees. The state constitution says their pay can't be changed during their term, so the raises won't take effect until January 2009.

The raise amount is a function of how much money in the budget was put into state compensation reserves, which will now be distributed to employees.