Any public school teacher, State employee, or employee of an employer covered by the South Carolina Retirement System who retired prior to July 1, 1945, in service with twenty or more years of such service and who has reached age sixty, shall be eligible for the minimum allowance of eighty dollars per month for the remainder of his life, such benefits to be paid from the general fund of the State. Notwithstanding the foregoing, effective July 1, 1972, the minimum allowance shall be one hundred and fifty dollars per month, plus one dollar per month for each completed year of service in excess of twenty years.
S.C. Code § 9-1-1920