This column compares public and private sector employee salaries
and benefits in San Benito County.
This column compares public and private sector employee salaries and benefits in San Benito County. The most up-to-date information is the unofficial summary of employment and wages from the California Employment Development Department, it would have been perfect except for one little thing; the private industry data is there, but the data for state and local governments was officially “suppressed.” When you get to the lines for state and local governments all you get is an “S” – “S” means the information is suppressed.
The state bureaucrats have come up an inventive argument for withholding this information – “The data will be suppressed,” it notes, “if there are fewer than three establishments, or if a single employer makes up more than 80 percent of the employment in that industry.” Obviously, state and local government employees make up ALL the state and local government employment, so that data is always suppressed. That’s the nonsense you have to put up with when government wants to keep the public in the dark, but I refuse to be ‘suppressed’ and there is more than one way to get information; you have to dig.
The report categorizes major industries. It specifies the number of establishments, average monthly employment, total annual payroll and average weekly pay per employee. Private manufacturing shows 65 establishments in San Benito County in 2009. Their average monthly employment total was 2,586; annual payroll total of $113 million and the average weekly pay $840. You can find the same information for ten other categories of private industry. Surprisingly, data is also available for the federal government, 13 establishments, 152 employees, an $8.4 million annual payroll and an average salary of $1,056 per week.
To counter this politically motivated censorship, I examined salaries and benefits in the original 500-page 2010-2011 San Benito County budget. The county budget equates to about 475 full-time employees (FTE) and an annual payroll of $42.8 million. The average position costs the taxpayers just over $90,000 a year.
One of the areas the county is studying for possible consolidation is the 911 Communications Center. Current staffing includes a manager and 14.5 other positions. The salary and benefits package exceeds $1.4 million or about $92,500 a year per employee, slightly higher than the county average. $918,558 is designated for regular salaries, averaging $59,261 per year. That basic salary is 36-percent higher than the $43,680 average for private manufacturing employees in the county during 2009. Wage calculations can be tricky, but these are in the ballpark.
In addition to basic salaries, center employees average of $25,300 in direct benefits. Some, like $8,266 in group insurance, are immediate. Others like $11,000 a year for CalPers retirement and $6,000 a year for post retirement healthcare are only realized long-term. Those direct benefits are added to the salaries to come up with total compensation; therefore, the average total compensation for these employees is $84,581.
Those salary and benefit packages far outstrip the averages in the private sector, but the taxpayers are not finished. There is an average of $2,000 a year in overtime in the original budget, $4,700 for Social Security and $1,175 for Worker’s Compensation Insurance all per employee. The final taxpayer cost is $92,472 each. The Communications Center is typical, even the library that I want to see thrive has per employee salary and benefit costs of $88,000, that is just too high.
Up to now, the politicians have been nibbling around the edges; however, they must face up to these unsustainable personnel costs. If they don’t, there is going to be hell to pay. Government can suppress and obfuscate all they want, but at some point, they won’t be able to keep the secret any longer.
Marty Richman is a Hollister resident.
