How many public employees are earning more than the public they serve?
While reviewing the 2008-2009 budget I had some thoughts.
There are 468 permanent union employees in the budget. 402 or 85% of these employees are paid a wage higher than the median household income of East Hartford. I will break this out further in a future entry.
Of the 18 elected officials paid for their service according to this budget only one is paid more than the median household income. The proposed salary of $81,400 for the position of Mayor is 196% of median household income.
Of the 41 remaining employees who are comprised of appointed, hired and otherwise non-union employees 34 or 83% are paid a wage higher than the median household income. I’ll break this out in the future as well.
As mentioned over on Ladyx’s blog there are a good number of raises included in this budget. It strikes me as a bit unfair to the citizens to tax them 9-11% of their gross wages with one hand and with the other give that money to employees who are already making more than the taxpayers.
I wonder how many of the 512 town employees actually live in town. If you know feel free to comment on it.
The salary total in this budget is $29,572,701 for union and non-union employees as well as the mayor. Other elected officials are left out of this number because they receive only a small stipend. This translates to an average salary of$57,985 which is 140% of the median household income and 266% of the East Hartford per capita income. This doesn’t even begin to take into consideration any benefit packages.
What are the requirements for the positions? Do you need graduate school degrees or are they high school diploma jobs? Certainly answers to those questions are part of the answer. Dividing the forest without regard for the trees will not get you the bet look at the information.
Are you comparing apples and oranges? Does the average East Hartford person have the skills necessary for the jobs you are focusing on?
Most of the positions are covered by collective bargaining agreements, so those salaries are in line with other municipalities (employee salaries might be more than an EH resident’s income, but the EH resident’s income doesn’t include mandatory certifications as building, plumbing, construction, and electrical inspectors, engineers, accountants, police officers, firefighters, paramedics, dispatchers, planners, sanitarians, lawyers, nurses, etc…).
The positions that are not under union control are paid under something the Mayor called the Personnel Rules, which she said was created under the Charter.
I sat through the whole budget hearing yesterday and the Mayor presented a report from the Connecticut Conference of Muncipalities comparing her directors to other public officials doing the same job in muncipalities of the same size (Middletown, Norwalk, West Hartford, Manchester, Meriden, etc…) and East Hartford’s director’s are paid about 80% of the going rate of the municipal market for comparable positions.
It should also be remembered that few professional managers come to East Hartford because of the way they are appointed – every two years after an election. The pay and the method of appointment are no incentive to attract and retain talent.
The Council spent about 30 minutes on the single large raise for the Building Official. Seems she’s about $40,000 per year less then her peers in some of those towns and she hinted she’s gone without some form of increase.
The lady said, “the cost of my milk, gas, and insurance is going up just like yours”. Pretty interesting analogy.
As you say:
This translates to an average salary of$57,985 which is 140% of the median household income and 266% of the East Hartford per capita income.
Per capita?
Why would you expect each person in the family to make that kind of money?
Also, does East Hartford restrict public employees to those persons who live in the borders? How would that help the town?
I understand that you are concerned that people make more money than seems fair to you. If you need to find the best employees, how would taking the lowest paid people help? Would taking the employees who can not get hired in higher paying places be a plus for East Hartford?