3 Responses to “3Public–PrivateSector Gap”

1. Administrator says:

   June 24, 2011 at 4:13 pm

   Comparing Ohioans Compensation to Peers in State Government
   Imbalance of government worker pay and private sector pay
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   The following are excerpts of The Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions’ president Matt A. Mayer being interviewed by Bob Connors (June 9, 2011 audio blog) about its new compensation tool:
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   Q – Why did you develop the new compensation tool?
   A –To give Ohioans a chance to compare themselves, how much they are making in total compensation, to their peers in state government. And to further educate them to the imbalance of government worker pay and private sector pay.
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   Q – How did this imbalance come about?
   A – Collective bargaining existed since 1983, public compensation increased that was greater than inflation because of pay steps, birthday bonuses, longevity pay for 28 years compounded to where the pay is fairly high and unsustainable..
   Q – The wage increases were won fairly by the unions and management agreed, weren’t they?
   A – True. This highlights an inherent problem with collective bargaining in government. There is no profit motive. If the money is there they pay it, if not, they just have the taxpayers bail them out.
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   Q – The highest hourly rate $101.70 per hour is paid is to a physician. Isn’t that fair?
   A – It may be, we want taxpayers to decide what is fair. To see the low, high and average pay for each of the 500 job codes.
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   Q – The highest paid state worker made $325,700 including about $100,000 in overtime pay. They could have hired two other workers for that amount.
   A – Yes, this situation shows the inherent inability to properly manage. A limitation in government is not being able to determine productivity measures. The system needs reform that is the thrust of Senate Bill 5. We need to get reform, the kind that gets control over wages.
   . We talked about the 613 Ohio school districts (based on October, 2010 Five Year Forecasts) are headed to a $7.6 billion deficit by 2015. By then, 96% of cost is compensation. If you don’t get the wages under control you will have to raise taxes, cut kids programs, or be unable to respond to safety concerns.
   . There should be across the board reforms to align to the Ohio economy. The state average is $52,580, just under the top 40% of all wage earners. There are a lot of surprises in the tool.
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   Note: There have been over 3.2 million searches of the data since April 30, 2010. The information can be found at http://www.buckeyeinstitute.org/.
2. Administrator says:

   May 11, 2011 at 7:46 am

   Former Hamilton County Administrator Patrick Thompson will walk away from his county job with nearly $263,000 in taxpayer-funded severance.
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   Thompson’s severance is considerably less than the severance for his predecessor David Krings, Krings, now Lockland’s administrator left Hamilton County with $424,673, according to the county auditor’s office.
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   He (Thompson) last earned $220,500 a year. His severance, spelled out in a contract, called for a year’s salary, plus a 14 percent contribution – or $30,870 – to his pension. Thompson argued he was also owed performance bonuses waived in recent years due to the county’s budget struggles; the two sides settled on the $263,000.
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   Source: $263K for fired official Ex-administrator’s severance worked out By Sharon Coolidge THE ENQUIRER May 10, 2011 B2
3. Administrator says:

   March 13, 2011 at 11:25 am

   One district says it has relatively lower costs, compared to certain other K-12 school districts. This tactic (play on words) is another sight-of-hand maneuver by school officials to avoid the additional truth of its exorbinate cost level compared to other entities in the private sector.