From the NY Post:Municipal workers made nearly twice as much as their counterparts in the private sector in former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s last years in office — earning a median salary of $65,300 in fiscal year 2012, a new analysis found.
By comparison, median income for a private sector worker was roughly $34,100 that year, according to the city’s Independent Budget Office.
The analysis was based on a little-noticed city report that had been quietly released on Bloomberg’s last day at City Hall.
The IBO found that while median city worker salaries stayed relatively flat over the past 10 years when adjusted for inflation, they climbed by about $6,000 between fiscal years 2005 and 2012.
“That small gain might look pretty good to a large share of the rest of the city,” IBO Chief of Staff Doug Turetsky wrote in a blog post.
That’s because private- sector salaries dropped by $3,000 on average over the same time period.
Despite the relatively steady state of municipal salaries, city payroll costs ballooned from $23.5 billion in fiscal 2003 to $37.2 billion in fiscal 2012, largely due to soaring pension and health-care costs.
18 comments:
304,066 full-time workers and 23,727 part-timers for city employees - probably a higher share of full time than city wide.
number of city workers over age 55 jumped from 15 percent in fiscal 2003 to 23 percent in fiscal 2012
More older workers explains some of the discrepancy too.
workers in the Police, Fire and Correction departments earned the highest median salary in fiscal 2012 (nearly $76,500).
That's what, 60,000 people? The first two get paid well because politicians never want to cut their pay, sanitation gets paid well because they agreed to switch to two man crews some years back and the deal was they get a cut of the cost savings.
staffers at the Housing Authority had a median income of just over $40,600.
Not all city employees make great cash.
What can people do about overly fed municipal workers?
Don't say to vote Republican.
What can an individual do?
Health and pension packages sweeten the deal even further.
I've never met a more greedy and self righteous blue collar employee than city and state employees. They often think we "owe" them when private sector workers often work longer hours, less pay, no medical or pension options and no job security.
Your right #2, don't vote republican, keep voting for the same people that continuously cut our throats
$65K is not that much money. I think the real story is that the non-gov't median income is so low!
$34K for a full-time employee is about $650/week. Who can live on that in NYC when a studio rents for at least $1,000 in shitty Flushing and probably closer to $2,000-$3,000 in LIC? One's entire after-tax earnings would go towards rent.
Wages are so low because we have a glut of willing bodies that will work for almost nothing!
Wages are low in the private sector because of the great job Obama is doing getting the economy to recover. Get ready for the 5th "Recovery Summer" in a few months.
Between 1989 and 2012 the AFSCME (American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees) provided $45.8 million dollars to political causes.
There's a reason FDR did not believe government workers should not be unionized.
IMO: Stop the War on workers !
"That’s because private- sector salaries dropped by $3,000 on average over the same time period."
Maybe you should try focusing on the real problem here.
And this is a problem? These people are all that's left of NYC's middle class.
Most if them don't live in NYC.
Real wages for all non-supervisory workers in the US have stagnated since 1973, despite significant increases in worker productivity.
The problem is not that public sector workers in the aggregate are paid too much, but that private sector workers are paid too little. Private sector unions, before they were busted or neutered, and for all their flaws, were a bulwark against employers competing too strongly on labor costs. And seriously, no President or Congress, liberal or not, in the past 40 years has done anything but pay lip service to the problem.
Also, what kind of city worker in the higher paid jobs (uniformed, teachers, nurses-those are the titles that skew the averages up)do you want? Pay them less than $65k/year and ask yourself what Queens neighborhoods can retain, let alone attract, the solid middle class family members you would want in those positions.
It used to be you took a city/state/federal job for a bit less pay than private sector, in exchange for job security.
Now, their unions have tried to grab it all. Unfundable pensions, high salaries, and complete job protection.
The system is a joke.
And this is a problem? These people are all that's left of NYC's middle class.
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Most of what qualities as city work (construction, police, office workers, etc) are NOT what has historically been considered Middle Class.
Their unions sure do like to push the image that they are, but by definition, middle class is management jobs and the professions (doctor, lawyer, engineer, architect, etc).
That is the core of the problem. Paying working class jobs jobs at middle-class levels. that is not a sustainable model.
See, still nobody said exactly what an individual can DO about this....just a hazy reference to vote for a Republican.
How about....
starving the government by
- avoiding fines
- not using the mail
- not playing lotto
- relentlessly protesting your property taxes (you cant lose - you might win)
- not buying stuff (sales tax)
starving the workers by
- not paying a bribe
- not tipping them (as many still do)
- shunning them socially
How about this.....Queens is done. Move.
65k is not the average, it's the median. So half of city workers make more than that. I work in an office for an agency in queens where every worker makes at least $20k more per year than private counterparts. And that's not considering the 5 weeks of vacation, pension, fre health care and union perks. Btw, it's not for a uniformed agency, just administrative.
Anonymous said... "How about this...Queens is done. Move"
I have an idea why don't you move back to where you came from you insolent interloper. Queens is my home !
Certainly not accurate - whoever is creating these "statistics" is lumping employees in with management and consultant salaries, which are bloated.
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