4Syc. 46% Gap is Growing
| Median Ohio Gov’t Worker $36,858 |
makes 24.6% more than |
Private-Sector Peer $29, 586 |
| Tot. Annual Cost Ohio Gov’t Employee $66,051 |
is 34% higher than |
Private-Sector Peer $49,210 |
| Sycamore Average Teacher Salary (9 month) $71,137 |
is 46% higher than |
Local Median Income $48,696 |
Source: ODE
This column by ACRU General Counsel Peter Ferrara was published February 23 on The American Spectator website.
Nationwide, state and local government workers are paid on average 45% more than private sector workers, with an average hourly wage of $26.25, and $13.56 in hourly costs for benefits, for total hourly costs of $39.81, or $80,000 per year on average. This is true in Wisconsin as well. Indeed, the Manhattan Institute’s E.J. McMahon reports that for public school teachers in Milwaukee, the annual cost of family health coverage is $26,844, for which the teachers currently pay nothing.
Yet, state and local government workers are mobbing the capitol in Wisconsin because newly elected Governor Scott Walker’s bill to close the state’s $3.6 billion budget deficit would require them to pay 5.8% of their pension costs, and 12.6% of their health insurance costs. In both cases, that would still be only about two-thirds or less of what private sector workers pay on average, among those who even have employer-provided health insurance. And no private sector worker has pension benefits like government workers, with some retiring at age 55 or even younger, with six-figure pensions every year for life.
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