For anyone who has bought the bill of goods that government workers have all these extremely great benefits, etc., let me set the record straight.
I currently work for my State government - have done for 23 years. When I first started, the salary lagged a bit behind the market, and that's always been the case. They claim they try to keep our wages at market rates, but by the time the legislature gets the data and approves raises to bring us up to prevailing rates, the data is up to 2 years old, so we're "catching up" with the prevailing rates of 2 years ago. But it used to be OK, because the benefits when I started WERE pretty great.
Not so much anymore. Some years ago, the citizens of my state adopted a "taxpayer's bill of rights." Not a bad notion - the theory was that the State's income should stay at the level it was at that time, keeping up with growth and inflation, but no big increases. Problem is, it was very badly written, and the way it works, it tends to ratchet down the State's income each year. To explain how it works, say a family had to live on this. Say the family made $50,000 one year. The next year, they could make $50,000 plus inflation, plus any new income brought in if, say, the oldest kid started working. But say the next year, Dad got laid off, and the family's income dropped to $23,000. The next year, even if Dad was rehired, the family could only earn $23,000, plus growth, plus inflation. That's what's happened to my State. We've had a few recessions, had to cut back, but then when the economy recovered, the State could not recover what it lost. There are also provisions that prohibit the State from saving or holding funds, from issuing bonds or any kind of debt for long-term expenses, etc, and there's another amendment that requires that the State's budget balance every year.
The legislature has been hard-pressed to maintain programs with the ratchet effect keeping income at the depressed levels from the declines a few years ago. Their solution, unfortunately, has been to pick the pockets of the State employees. Our benefits are now 79% of the prevailing market, 49th of 50 state governments. They haven't funded merit increases for several years now, and they haven't always funded the salary survey, so we're about 11% behind the market, pay-wise.
I'm fortunate, in that I came in before a lot of this, and capped out under the previous "step-based" pay raise system, so my salary has hovered near the top of the pay scale for my position (I'm at about 75%), but most of my coworkers languish at around 25%. Last year, my agency hired two people who quit the day after they started. Took one look at the benefits and quit. The State's turnover statewide is about 11%, and it's 50% among newer workers, who have been hired in the last 5 years. The only people sticking around are us older workers who are nearing retirement (our retirement plans are still pretty good). We just get people trained, and they quit! What a waste of resources!
Of course, because that's the case, the average age of State workers is about 4-5 years above the average among private sector employees. And our insurance rates are MUCH higher, because it costs more to insure those older workers.
So not only does our insurance cost more, but the State doesn't even kick in market level contributions. Which of course just chases more newer workers out the door, which of course means that the workforce ages more, which of course means insurance goes up more....
Anyway, all this is lead up to the punchline. This year, after a great deal of debate and much fanfare, the legislature just voted to bump our benefits to (gasp) 85% of prevailing. I was all excited until they released the new benefits prices. Even with the bump, insurance rates went up so much that my premium is going to jump 31%.
What's the state going to do when all us oldpharts jump ship, and leave the agencies staffed by half-trained, underqualified, underpaid newbies?
One reason that the public legislating through constitutional amendments is a horrible, horrible idea. There's just no way to fix the constitutional problems that are at the core of this - not without a majority vote of the citizens.
Anyway, rant over. GOSH I want to retire! So depressing, thinking that the bump in benefits would help, and getting zapped even harder.
I currently work for my State government - have done for 23 years. When I first started, the salary lagged a bit behind the market, and that's always been the case. They claim they try to keep our wages at market rates, but by the time the legislature gets the data and approves raises to bring us up to prevailing rates, the data is up to 2 years old, so we're "catching up" with the prevailing rates of 2 years ago. But it used to be OK, because the benefits when I started WERE pretty great.
Not so much anymore. Some years ago, the citizens of my state adopted a "taxpayer's bill of rights." Not a bad notion - the theory was that the State's income should stay at the level it was at that time, keeping up with growth and inflation, but no big increases. Problem is, it was very badly written, and the way it works, it tends to ratchet down the State's income each year. To explain how it works, say a family had to live on this. Say the family made $50,000 one year. The next year, they could make $50,000 plus inflation, plus any new income brought in if, say, the oldest kid started working. But say the next year, Dad got laid off, and the family's income dropped to $23,000. The next year, even if Dad was rehired, the family could only earn $23,000, plus growth, plus inflation. That's what's happened to my State. We've had a few recessions, had to cut back, but then when the economy recovered, the State could not recover what it lost. There are also provisions that prohibit the State from saving or holding funds, from issuing bonds or any kind of debt for long-term expenses, etc, and there's another amendment that requires that the State's budget balance every year.
The legislature has been hard-pressed to maintain programs with the ratchet effect keeping income at the depressed levels from the declines a few years ago. Their solution, unfortunately, has been to pick the pockets of the State employees. Our benefits are now 79% of the prevailing market, 49th of 50 state governments. They haven't funded merit increases for several years now, and they haven't always funded the salary survey, so we're about 11% behind the market, pay-wise.
I'm fortunate, in that I came in before a lot of this, and capped out under the previous "step-based" pay raise system, so my salary has hovered near the top of the pay scale for my position (I'm at about 75%), but most of my coworkers languish at around 25%. Last year, my agency hired two people who quit the day after they started. Took one look at the benefits and quit. The State's turnover statewide is about 11%, and it's 50% among newer workers, who have been hired in the last 5 years. The only people sticking around are us older workers who are nearing retirement (our retirement plans are still pretty good). We just get people trained, and they quit! What a waste of resources!
Of course, because that's the case, the average age of State workers is about 4-5 years above the average among private sector employees. And our insurance rates are MUCH higher, because it costs more to insure those older workers.
So not only does our insurance cost more, but the State doesn't even kick in market level contributions. Which of course just chases more newer workers out the door, which of course means that the workforce ages more, which of course means insurance goes up more....
Anyway, all this is lead up to the punchline. This year, after a great deal of debate and much fanfare, the legislature just voted to bump our benefits to (gasp) 85% of prevailing. I was all excited until they released the new benefits prices. Even with the bump, insurance rates went up so much that my premium is going to jump 31%.
What's the state going to do when all us oldpharts jump ship, and leave the agencies staffed by half-trained, underqualified, underpaid newbies?
One reason that the public legislating through constitutional amendments is a horrible, horrible idea. There's just no way to fix the constitutional problems that are at the core of this - not without a majority vote of the citizens.
Anyway, rant over. GOSH I want to retire! So depressing, thinking that the bump in benefits would help, and getting zapped even harder.
