TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- A committee overseeing state employee pay is recommending about $11.4 million in raises for underpaid state workers, with corrections officers at Kansas prisons among the groups benefiting most.

The Joint Committee on Employee Pay Plan Oversight on Tuesday recommended 7.5 percent raises for more than a thousand corrections officers. The funds were appropriated during the 2012 legislative session.

Corrections Secretary Ray Roberts told the committee that the increases would bring officers who haven't had a pay raise since 2009 closer to the market rate.

The Topeka Capital-Journal (http://bit.ly/PHogjf ) reported the pay raises are part of a state program to raise the pay of certain state employees closer to similar private sector employees.

The pay increases range from 5 percent to 12.5 percent and will go to 4,296 state employees,