Steve Claypool: Add benefits, and public employees often worse off than private
Re “Public pay: City Hall salaries, benefits dwarf those in private sector” (Page 1A, Dec. 9): The Bee wrote of “a shocking inequity between city employees and the taxpayers who must bear the cost.”
It’s not so shocking after all. Transparent California says reporting “full compensation” is very important, but for the average private-sector worker the organization provides only wages, saying the average is $43,260. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, wages is normally represents 68.6 precent of total compensation. The other 31.4 percent (health insurance, OASDI, etc.) would bring the average “full compensation” for an average private sector worker to $63,060 plus overtime, if any. This provides a beginning for a realistic comparison.
Equally important is the apples-to-oranges factor mentioned by others. For the average city salary of $73,000, a typical job is Financial Analyst III, requiring a bachelors degree and progressively responsible experience. Certification as a Certified Public Accountant or Certified Management Accountant is highly desirable.
For $43,120, a typical private sector job might be “yard hostler” which pays $20.25 per hour for those with experience. Yard hostlers “operate pallet jacks and forklifts in warehouses, ports and terminals.” They also “clean out trailers,” according to Indeed.com.
What is a similarly paid city job? That would be Maintenance Worker I, which pays $35,642 to $43,323 per year. Their duties include shoveling and spreading asphalt in patching, repairing and reconstructing streets. They might also perform routine maintenance on construction equipment such as dump trucks, rollers, front loaders and power tools. Most assignments require the possession of a valid Class B California Driver’s License.
The highest paid public worker in this category makes $203 per year (or 9 cents per hour) more than the highest paid private-sector employee in the most similar category. So now you have an apples-to-apples comparison.
Steve Claypool, Turlock
This story was originally published December 17, 2015 at 5:14 PM with the headline "Steve Claypool: Add benefits, and public employees often worse off than private."