Public Employee Salaries in the news again
The Sunday edition of the Contra Costa Times has come up with the mother of all searchable databases (click here). The paper has been working for months to compile salary information on every single entity in the greater bay area -- which includes San Joaquin County. So far they've included 64 governmental entities with a total of 134,000 employees. The only local entity in the database is the County of San Joaquin (so far).
Here are some of the nuggets from the news story that accompanied the link to the database:
A public health care district in southern Alameda County paid its chief executive $876,831 in 2008 — more than twice as much as any other local government employee in the East Bay, San Francisco,San Mateo County and San Joaquin County, an extensive survey of salary data by the Bay Area News Group found.
The data show wide discrepancies in pay and sometimes high salaries in government agencies, such as the Port of Oakland, where a semiskilled laborer grossed $123,450 in 2008, and in Newark, in southern Alameda County, where more than half of the 215 city employees were each paid more than $100,000 last year and the average gross pay was $109,027.
San Joaquin County also had four employees in the top 10 highest paid employees — four doctors at the county's General Hospital, paid from $377,023 to $449,155.
The other two members of the top 10 were Alameda County Administrator Susan Muranishi at $424,810 and East Bay Municipal Utility District General Manager David Diemer at $380,023.
While the large salaries grab most of the headlines, it also points out the huge overtime often received by pubilc safety employees and the large percentage of safety employees earning over $100,000 per year.
While most employees don't receive these higher salaries, there is a widespread discontent among California residents with regard to public employee compensation. This is in addition to the backlash I've been documenting in previous posts regarding public employee pensions. As budgets get tighter and services diminish, there is no doubt that this discontent will continue to grow.
There are also a number of studies that argue that public employee compensation now far exceeds private sector compensation levels. Click here for the chart that demonstrates the results of one study. Whether or not you agree with the data is irrelevant, the reality is that public sentiment for government salaries is going south. I believe this is particularly true here in the "outer" bay area where housing costs and average household income is far lower than the bay area, but government salaries are nearly equivalent to those west of the Altamont.
I'll be discussing more in the future the challenges we are facing as we attempt to keep our salaries competitive with the "inner" bay area.
Here are some of the nuggets from the news story that accompanied the link to the database:
A public health care district in southern Alameda County paid its chief executive $876,831 in 2008 — more than twice as much as any other local government employee in the East Bay, San Francisco,San Mateo County and San Joaquin County, an extensive survey of salary data by the Bay Area News Group found.
The data show wide discrepancies in pay and sometimes high salaries in government agencies, such as the Port of Oakland, where a semiskilled laborer grossed $123,450 in 2008, and in Newark, in southern Alameda County, where more than half of the 215 city employees were each paid more than $100,000 last year and the average gross pay was $109,027.
San Joaquin County also had four employees in the top 10 highest paid employees — four doctors at the county's General Hospital, paid from $377,023 to $449,155.
The other two members of the top 10 were Alameda County Administrator Susan Muranishi at $424,810 and East Bay Municipal Utility District General Manager David Diemer at $380,023.
While the large salaries grab most of the headlines, it also points out the huge overtime often received by pubilc safety employees and the large percentage of safety employees earning over $100,000 per year.
While most employees don't receive these higher salaries, there is a widespread discontent among California residents with regard to public employee compensation. This is in addition to the backlash I've been documenting in previous posts regarding public employee pensions. As budgets get tighter and services diminish, there is no doubt that this discontent will continue to grow.
There are also a number of studies that argue that public employee compensation now far exceeds private sector compensation levels. Click here for the chart that demonstrates the results of one study. Whether or not you agree with the data is irrelevant, the reality is that public sentiment for government salaries is going south. I believe this is particularly true here in the "outer" bay area where housing costs and average household income is far lower than the bay area, but government salaries are nearly equivalent to those west of the Altamont.
I'll be discussing more in the future the challenges we are facing as we attempt to keep our salaries competitive with the "inner" bay area.
Labels: Budget
posted by City Manager @ 5:34 AM
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