The Kansas agency that regulates utilities has offered its classified employees a 7.5 percent raise if they agree to be removed from the state’s civil service system.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports 94 of the Kansas Corporation Commission’s roughly 200 employees are classified staffers. The newspaper obtained the text of the email KCC human resources director Danelle Harsin sent to classified workers Wednesday.

Commission spokesman Samir Arif says the employees have the option to take the offer but aren’t obligated to do so. The agency says the raises are being offered as a result of the Legislature’s passage this year of a measure changing the Kansas Civil Service Act.

Under that law, all newly hired employees, promoted workers or those who are voluntarily transferred are placed in the unclassified system.