A major issue is shaping up in this year’s election, and if Republicans will only take this issue and run with it, it will pay big dividends in November.
The issue is public employee compensation. There has been a steady drum beat of examples of government workers making out like bandits at the expense of the taxpayers. The latest is from San Francisco — where else? Investors Business Daily reports that the average salary for city workers there is $93,000. And that sum does not include benefits. A third of the city work force makes more than $100,000 each. The retired deputy police chief earned $516,118 in his last year, thanks to saved up vacation days, sick leave, overtime, etc. It is, of course, the last year’s compensation that largely determines the size of the pension public employees get.
Across the country, public employees earned, on average, $39.66 an hour. The private sector? The average was $27.42. In other words, public employees earn 44 percent more. A cornucopia of information on public employee compensation can be found at Sunshine Review, including this eye-opening chart:
|
Compensation |
A. State and Local |
B. Private Sector |
Ratio A/B |
| Total Compensation | $39.66 | $27.42 | 1.45 |
| Wages and salaries | 26.01 | 19.39 | 1.34 |
| Benefits | 13.65 | 8.02 | 1.70 |
| Paid leave | 3.27 | 1.85 | 1.77 |
| Supplemental pay | 0.34 | 0.83 | 0.41 |
| Health insurance | 4.34 | 1.99 | 2.18 |
| Defined-benefit pension | 2.85 | 0.41 | 6.95 |
| Defined-contribution pension | 0.31 | 0.53 | 0.58 |
| Other benefits | 2.53 | 2.40 | 1.05 |
The Democrats are deeply beholden to public employee unions. The SEIU gave Democrats over $60 million in 2008 and they have been getting their money’s worth in return. One-third of the so-called stimulus money went to state and local governments to avoid layoffs of public employees. Republicans, however, owe them no favors, to put it mildly.
As long as they make it clear that they are not anti-union, but rather want to narrow the gap in compensation in order to give taxpayers relief, Republican candidates at all levels can earn votes by demanding a freeze on public-employee compensation until they are once more in line with private-sector pay scales and benefit packages. Republicans running for Congress could argue for a revision of the Wagner Act, which governs how unions and management negotiate labor contracts. It was written in 1935, when there were virtually no unionized public employees. But the dynamic in which unions and governments negotiate is completely different from the dynamic of private-sector negotiations.
Earning votes while saving taxpayers money and weakening the No.1 funder of the opposition party. What’s not to like?
