Labor Contracts in the Spotlight

As the state begins the new fiscal year with no budget resolution in sight, many critics of state government are now focusing on labor costs. With the highest public employee salaries in the country, many outside of the legislature are beginning the question the premise that it is programming that should take the brunt of the budget cuts. Many are beginning to argue that public sector salaries and benefits are the main deficit culprit and that our budget problems can be solved if public sector workers begin to take the same compensation hits as their private sector brethren.

While this is certainly an oversimplification at the state level where salaries are a small percentage of the overall budget, it particularly holds true for local government where most budgets are 70-80 percent labor related. It is critical that we at the local government level begin to ensure that our compensation plans begin to mirror the labor market as a whole where both salaries and benefits are taking a major hit.

Here are a couple of articles that demonstrate the groundswell of frustration over public employee compensation. The first is from one of the usual critics of government, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. While his opinion is not surprising, the fact that this article is being referenced in many mainstream publications demonstrates the sea change in attitude towards public employee compensation. Click here to read.

The second article chronicles the many hidden perks in many public safety labor contracts. This has become a recurring theme in main stream media articles. While there is still a lot of public support for retaining public safety workers, there is beginning to be little or no support for the salaries that police and firefighters are receiving. It notes how a patrol officer was able to get a 47 percent salary increase without any promotion or change in duties via the provisions of her city's labor contract. The article can be accessed by clicking here.