In California, fire and police are way above middle class. They vote GOP, and many move to low tax states like Idaho in retirement. At age 50! So tho don't pay for the riches of their their
Replacements. Teachers are not enriched, in great contrast.
20
"In Houston, pinched by a property tax cap, the police chief has said his department is short 1,500 to 2,000 officers." Property tax caps are a symptom of the regressive nature of taxation in Texas. The State's refusal to implement progressive taxes on income is the true culprit.
14
Many people envy teachers for their pensions, but fail to realize that pensions work as "forced saving" in your younger years. That's why you don't see teachers driving around in fat cars or living in expensive houses. You are essentially just getting the money back that got deducted earlier. There is a curve that insures that those who don't stay in the profession for very long lose out on their pension. In California, you need to be a teacher for at least 23 years to get the money back out in pensions that you yourself put in. Really difficult for people who teach as a second career to get enough years together. That "forced saving" is not a bad thing, because most people don't have the discipline to save early and significantly for retirement. Pensions should be expanded to more professions.
23
As a retired government employee and former teacher, I can tell you it's the rank and file that are losing ground--not the management. Especially in higher ed, the difference between administrators and the hoi polloi is quickly getting bigger.
27
You barely touched on another reason for the decline in public employment: Public employee jobs are increasingly being contracted out to private industry. One reason is the lower wages paid by private employers. In the Federal government, this works both ways: Pay for civil servants is constrained by the federal pay scales in such a way that better employees cannot get as much as they deserve--it must pay what the pay scale says the job is worth (private employees doing the same job can get higher pay because private industry has no such restrictions) and the Federal government cannot pay as little as people are willing to work for, for the same job--it must pay what the pay scale says the job is worth (private employees doing the same job can get lower pay because private industry has no such restrictions). Most such contracts are cost-plus, giving the private contractor no incentive to pay less, so they don't necessarily pay wages as low as they otherwise would and contracting does not necessarily save the government money.
9
It seems to me to be very uneven, and unfair. Teachers in particular aren't paid very well, yet some people really seem to abuse it. I don't think it's smart to lump everyone together.
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/Retiring-S-F-police-b...
3
Just noticed this article side by side with the Scott Pruitt article. Sadly ironic.
11
I am really baffled by the unawareness of the writer. I'm from Illinois and in IL public servants across the board are the highest paid employees when you factor in free health insurance, lifetime pension, lifetime medical etc. This goes for govt workers, city workers, teachers union (one of the highest paid), police officers, fire fighters etc. There are over 10,000 people in the public sector pulling in 100k or more. It's called the 10billion club. Please google it. Federal employees are handsomely paid too. For eg. Several in IRS pulls in 300k or more (these are just avg jobs, not ceo type jobs). This is not only the case in IL, same is the case in California - Google Orange county lifeguard salary (200k plus). I could go on and on. The real people suffering in this country are the middle class who work in private sector who haven't had decent salary increases, are worried about getting fired (performance based) and terrible health insurances. This writer has no clue or is ignoring that fact. I personally know some of them working as teachers and for the city as laborers who pull in 6 figures. Today if you work for the government, you are good to go with lifetime pension and you can never get fired. Not so with the others.
By the way, I'm not a republican or a democrat...an independent and a biz owner and I don't fall into any of the categories above but I just had to point this out to a writer who hasn't done his research.
14
If you read the article this was about public employees of Republican led states. How dare they pay public employees a living wage.
Chill
19
I wish the author had examined the rate of public employees leaving their jobs for the private sector. As a former City Manager, I rarely saw any employees hired away by other companies. What I did see was a lot of employees hanging on to jobs they disliked so they could receive public pension benefits after 20 to 25 years. As a member of the City pension Board, I also witnessed public safety employees game the retirement system with huge banks of sick leave and comp time in order to greatly boost their "final average compensation" and reap annual pension payments well above $100K/per year, along with paid health benefits and medicare supplemental benefits. Elected officials and city managers were no match for their bargaining skills and the leverage generated by unions endorsing and campaigning for local candidates. These practices turn taxpayers away from supporting local tax millages and other public employees.
19
you're absolutely right Rob. This is exactly what I posted as a comment too. I can't believe how the writer completely ignored these facts. One has to wonder if that was deliberate omission. Many of the government bodies now spend more on pensions than anything else.
12
How is it “gaming the system” to use comp/sick time that you have, in fact, earned? I truly don’t understand this. If I earn $5 and choose not to spend it immediately but put it in a bank for later use, is it not still mine?
14
Did you read this? These are primarily Republican led states who are trying to “ starve the beast.”
3
Being a public servant is thankless - a union that is not allowed to strike or make overtime, pay cuts, huge deductions from your paycheck, and now a Supreme Court that says my state doesn't have to pay the pension that I'm forced to pay into. By the way, our County Executive gets two pensions. My pay before taxes and deductions is about $56,000, I have about $30,000 to live on after taxes and deductions. If I didn't have dividends, I'd have about $20,000. This isn't in low cost Oklahoma, but in high cost New Jersey.
17
Do more with less is the mantra. Anything to pay for not raising taxes. Unfortunately, it's a lie. Politcians want the public to think it never costs more to pay for services. It has to come off someones back.
6
This is a remarkable article in that it makes a bold, sweeping claim in both the headline "Public Servants are Losing..." and in the body, "[government workers] are finding themselves financially downgraded," yet it fails to even attempt to provide supporting evidence for either.
The reduced rate of employment greath does not speak to whether public employees are being "financially downgraded." To support that, the Times cites a handful of employees in Oklahoma, but reveals nothing about the financial state of public employees more broadly.
In fact, government workers' compensation has increased at a faster pace than the private sector over the past 20 years, according to the BEA: https://twitter.com/biggsag/status/988459467187589120
Today, the $49 average hourly cost for state and local government workers' compensation is about 50 percent greater the $34 level found in the private sector.
Even the handful of Oklahoma examples are less compelling when one accounts for the fact that the median earnings for full-time, year-round worker in Oklahoma's private sector was only $40,181.
Regardless, the data clearly show government compensation continues to outpace the private-sector both in absolute terms and in % growth. While Oklahoma may be an outlier to this trend, analyzing one state is insufficient to draw broad, sweeping conclusions about the public sector generally. Particularly if those conclusions flatly contradict a plethora of evidence to the contrary.
12
I'm a public worker, and had a huge pay cut, even Trump's tax cut hasn't brought my salary up to its old level, this was to pay for health care. Would you like to live on $34,000 a year? That's what I bring home after all my taxes and deductions.
10
Actually this is true of Republican led states.
4
The continued instigation of anger toward public workers deflects from the upper class who are laughing all the way to the bank (or hedge fund) with their tax cut dollars. Wake up! You may not be rich or a government worker, but you are being played.
28
Perhaps this is the way it is in most of the U.S. -- except on Long Island (New York) Every day I regret not going into teaching. At my current age (59) I would have a safe, secure pension -- and would have been earning over 6 figures at retirement after 30 years of work. (Check out the site "seethroughny.net/payrolls" to see what your neighbors earn)
Instead, after 34+ years as a professional in IT, with an MBA, I'm still saving for retirement. And with no pension but just a 401K, still working, for the foreseeable future.
14
Life is a marathon not a sprint. Not blaming you but when you were 25,30 or 35 did you not think about a pension and retiring one day? My mother talked about it all the time growing up to my brothers and sisters. Get a job with a pension. ie. a government job.
4
Six figures? Really? I do not begrudge teachers who are working on educating our future. Perhaps, if you could work with kids, in class or out, you would have a pension. How many teachers at age 22 thought, whoa,
I am going to be a teacher because of the pension?
9
Sounds like us here - keep it up and you’ll soon see crime rise because thousands of police have been fired, scores dead in financially-starved tower block public housing fires, libraries shut, wages nose-dive as private companies run riot with the cost of essentials and teachers having to write to parents because the school needs money to buy a pack of pencils (one pencil per three kids).
Give it a few more years, and you’ll be Brexitting from something in a final götterdämmerung ;)
7
Are loosing? You meant lost like two decades ago...many in the supposed middle class, are living paycheck to paycheck and have been since the second Bush #43....and when the Congress had a chance to help the middle America they didn't because God forbid, it would have been under #44's watch....the black guy.
14
We have endured a full blown assault on the working and middle class ever since Reagan waged war on the Air Traffic Controller's Union almost 40 years ago. As the 1% has grown ever more obscenely wealthy and powerful, they've done so on the backs of the rest of us. It is the accumulated frustration and rage at the empty promises made by politicians of both parties that enable Trump to win the WH.
Yes, the Republicans, following their dictate to "Shrink the government small enough to be drowned in a bathtub", have led this assault, but the Democrats aided and abetted them by doing almost nothing, and then threw NAFTA on top of it as the icing on the cake. Promises of more and better jobs and pay have been repeatedly broken by both Republicans and Democrats, while they made sure they took care of the donor and investor class. So when Trump promised to "drain the swamp" voters took that to mean that the "status quo" that had robbed them of their wealth for decades would finally be ended. So desperate were they for change they didn't stop to consider that the guy promising it was a reality tv star.
And despite the monumental wake up call sent by voters, the Democrats are still in denial of what went wrong, and what to do about it! Ironically, they need to return to the simple admonition by Bill Clinton, who betrayed those who elected him: "It's the economy, stupid!" You want to fix racial and social injustice? Mass shootings? The environment? First, fix the economic injustice.
23
Stick a fork in it, America. You're done.
5
Wonder how long it'll take for them to realize that when the Republicans they vote for attack public workers, unelected bureaucrats, they mean them?
6
I think the problem occurs when some people are in unions and others are not. People in unions can drive prices up creating a monopoly. What is the difference between that and a corporate monopoly?
I am all for fair pay. But it is not fair when only one segment of the population gets the benefits and the other segments don't. Let everyone be unionized... or no one.
I would vote for everyone having fair pay, however it comes, personally. But this system of some in, some out is quite unfair when you think about it.
There is no one to stop our transit BART from striking, for example. ( I guess our politicians could, but guess who their major donors are?)
It costs a family of 4 $40 or more to take a ride across a couple of counties in the Bay Area. Who would do that? OTOH...who is going to stop the workers from insisting on pay raise after pay raise? Every few years we see more rate hikes, and no one can stop them.
These days in CA a gov't job is like great gravy. Way better pay than private.
Our town is at a 19% pension obligation and this is sure to explode in years to come to unsustainable levels. And bankrupt us. Look out for massive bankruptcies as the work forces retire.
4
A monopoly? The wage gap is right on line with the diminishment of union membership. What do you think built the middle class?
14
May it is best in these states to just privatize the public services as much as possible. The labor pool will be the same and the businesses can charge the citizens user fees instead of taxes. That way there won’t be anyone in government to complain to when the bills go up.
Asking citizens of low tax states to pay for public services is a heavy lift and is subject to much misinformation, so let them complain to the owners of those privatized services.
6
This is the common misconception of the public, that public employees are lazy, are over paid, and don't need a higher education. None of which is true, those who aren't public employees have no idea, never have been, all they have to go by is what their elected officials tell them. Public services need to be paid for, and don't kid yourself, you won't get cheaper water, or better prisons or better road maintenance if it's privatized. An example of that is the water that was poisoned in West Virginia, which is now the most expensive water in the country. http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/videos/what-lies-upstream/
The public sits back an whines when it takes hours to get a drivers license, or restaurant's that go un-inspected when a complaint has been filed, or when someone is killed or injured on the job, or even a decent education. The states run by small government republicans can't even get a pot hole filled, and the public is quick to blame lazy workers, or inept employees. I worked for the State of Alaska, they had small government mantra, until it came to their free PFD money. When it took 4 months to insert 500,000 checks, when people didn't get their PFD money in time for Christmas, or Thanksgiving for that matter, well that's a different story, the state whine, where's my PFD. But safe roads, better schools, safe drinking water in villages that didn't have a treatment plant much less fresh water that didn't come from a muskeg, naa, that's not important.
18
What I find galling are the calls in conservative circles for pay cuts for government employees in the name of belt tightening and fiscal responsibility while at the same time Ben Carson drops $31,000 on a new dining set, the salary for the new CDC director is twice what the previous one was paid, Scott Pruitt spent $43,000 on a soundproof booth, got significant pay raises for several top employees, he flies first class on the public dime and he wants a new bulletproof SUV for his own security, Zinke is flying around on private jets and somehow figured out a way to spend $139,000 on two doors, and Mnuchin spent $1 million on airfare in eight months.
Why are salaries for regular government employees being squeezed while those at the top spend lavishly and only express remorse, if they express remorse, when they're caught? Why aren't there calls for fiscal responsibility for those in the Trump Cabinet?
31
Ben Carson spent basically my whole year's take home pay, and I'm a public worker. I really regret staying in the public sector. Pay cuts. I'm broke.
10
The middle class has been under attack ever since the Reagan Revolution, and Obama did not reverse that. Trump says he wants to "make America great again." Without a strong middle class you can't get the money to fund the public sector, which is paid for with taxes.
10
Let's start at the top. Trump is a public employee. Let him pay his own expenses for his perpetual vacation and security in FL, and any place other than DC. Work at least a full time work a full time work week like other public employees, instead of the federal, state and local employees protecting and serving him. No award, nor second term for being the laziest part-time Pres, we've ever had.
No tweeting, golf, rants, tv, or personal calls from Hannity and Fox Friends between 9-5.
Next Senators and Congressmen/women. No pension unless MCs & Senators make it 10 years, no gold plated health plans, no insider trading, no dark money, nor donations, nor gifts from anyone. No congressional gyms. No play time junkets for you plus your significant other, on our public dime.
Finally, Cabinet and other equivalent public positions. No travel on the public dime, except that person traveling coach economy on regular airlines.
As to other perks, Pruitt, no sound proof booths from our taxes and daily allowances while at your home. Shulkin and Mnuchin, no international or moon eclipse junkets with wives on the public dime.
Carson have your wife get your dining room set out of our public office, to your private home, and reimburse our taxes you stole from us for you and her to buy it. There's plenty of great furniture for your office at discount liquidators.
If I left any other PUBLIC SERVANT OUT, THE SAME GOES FOR YOU, TOO!! YOU FORGOT, YOU WORK FOR US, WE DON'T PAY FOR YOU!
10
Don't you get a certain feeling when you walk into public service institution? It's a feeling that things aren't right, that things are dysfunctional. Examples: My small Post Office would stop service for one full hour while its two employees had their noon lunch break. DMV in Manhattan where you could spend hours waiting on line only to be dismissed because a certain form was missing. These actions are not acceptable in the competitive private sector. Privatize everything except essential government functions like law enforcement and military. Schools, roads, marriage licenses, health care, NPR, etc etc. should have nothing to do with the government.
2
I have to say I always chuckle when someone touts corporate America as functional. I've had a senior professional job for 40 years. I've been upsized, downsized, re-sized, centralized, decentralized. Every new executive immediately undoes whatever the guy before him did. People doze in their cubicles, others run around in circles confusing activity for accomplishment. Committees argue over whether a brochure should be blue or gray. There are 2 vice presidents for every employee. You just can't make up what goes on. On the other hand, I've never had a lick of trouble getting my garbage or mail picked up, my license renewed, my property tax bill delivered and so on. I thinks it's just fashionable to call public organizations dysfunctional and private ones the epitome of greatness and efficiency.
16
Only speaking for myself, but I’d much rather have a post office closed completely for one hour than one that is half-staffed for two hours. Easy to remember and efficient.
8
How about the PO workers grabbing a bite when it is slow or doing without lunch when it is busy? That is what I've always done and how most people I know work. Who needs an hour to eat a sandwich from home?
1
Oklahoma has cut government, reflecting their Republican philosophy. Does it also reflect how poor the state is? Even if they had the same tax structure as New York State; would their per capita state revenue allow them to pay well for resources?
We focus on taxation schemes but perhaps this is a income question?
It could be.
But didn't have to be.
It is the home of the Koch brothers. Thanks to Mr. Trump they save over $1 billion dollars every year over their previous taxes. That doesn't take into account their off-shore tax havens. Nor their business dealings.
According to figures from the Oklahoma Tax Commission, the oil and gas industry got over $600 million from the state last year between tax breaks and rebates.
They tax oil n gas production at 2%. Compared to other oil producing states, like North Dakota, where oil n gas is taxed at 10-11 percent.
Oklahoma City’s Thunder basketball team qualifies for the Quality Jobs Program. Professional Basketball Club LLC received $4 million in payouts yearly. Owned by oilman George Kaiser of Tulsa.
Just a few examples.
The state has cut services and tax credits to its citizens to the bone. It has given away everything to those wealthy and corp., that lobby and run the Gov.
That hole in their boot is self shot.
10
Not in NY. The taxpayer continues to get fleeced here. The MTA, NYC bosses, golden retirements, the list goes on. Teachers in my district pull in well over six figures and I'm not talking Long Island or Westchester taxes either.
Try to get a regular job and afford an apartment, not happening for regular people.
Conservative economists can talk all they want about how good being poor is in the US, but the reality is that the young and the elderly especially can't afford to actually live here.
An apartment cost $1500 (the city more, much more). At $10 an hour, just how do you afford that.
The me me me, more more more mentality of the rich, POTUS included, just look at his cronies, will eventually ruin us all.
Its not the everyday taxpayers against the everyday public worker, its the super rich against everyone else.
We're supposed to be at full employment,but Starbucks isn't hiring enough managers, just sayin'. Uber won't cut it. The Gig economy?, just try to afford health insurance on your own.
It doesn't help that even the poorest somehow can have an iPhone either. Just where is that line between being happy,having a roof over your head and some idea of a future retirement, and just taking advantage.
3
Tax cuts for the rich = Theft of public wealth to benefit the rich. Privatization = Corruption = Inserting middlemen to skim money from public services and then kick back to public officials. 'Free market ideology' = A lying excuse to steal from the public, including by tax cuts, privatization, offshoring of jobs and importation of cheap labor on work visas. Sadly, most the people targeted by this theft (the public, including public workers) will still vote for the thieves who rob them.
10
Well that's capitalism. It is a system where money rules, where company profit comes before all else, where any employee can be dismissed at will, where people become slaves to debt, where an average worker can not survive for more than a month should he/she lose his/her job.
And where unemployment benefits are hard to get and food stamp is tied to actively looking for a job.
Such is not the case in the Scandinavian countries.
12
We are tax-cutting ourselves into a third-world country. The premise behind tax cuts was supposed to be efficiency, accountability, and in some cases narrowing the scope of government activity. It should still include maintaining adequate levels of funding for those activities everyone still wants government to carry out. If a state can't even keep its schools open five days a week, and its teachers have to take on second jobs, it has gone much too far.
I am fortunate to live in a place where we pay fairly considerable taxes, but the schools are outstanding and local government is efficient, innovative, and competent. You get what you pay for.
9
We pay the highest taxes in the country, and I'm not impressed with New Jersey.
1
Tax cuts for the rich = Theft of public wealth to benefit the rich.
Privatization = Corruption = Inserting middlemen to skim money from public services and then kick back to public officials.
'Free market ideology' = A lying excuse to steal from the public, including by tax cuts and privatization.
Sadly, most the people targeted by this theft (the public, including public workers) will still vote for the thieves who rob them.
5
But never any mention of course of the party which promotes these policies: it's the REPUBLICAN PARTY.
And we should all remember that this November.
6
No money in Oklahoma for carers for children with disabilities or for experienced teachers, but there's $43,000 was spent to install a soundproof phone booth at office of OK's finest - Scott Pruitt: (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/04/05/all-of-the-re...
What kind of society elects politicians who treat their people this way?
15
Who said private sector recovered? wages are stagnant and people are doing 2 to 3 jobs to keep up sometimes, I wished papers like the NY times were more honest about the real economy.
7
It never ceases to amaze me that a significant percentage of workers in the United States continue to castigate "big government" and civil servants as destructive, lazy and overpaid. These overwhelmingly republican voters, indoctrinated by the right wing media and corporate entangled talking heads, consistently tow the republican line when bashing "big government". When will they wake up and realize that they will never be able to succeed unless there is government oversight to ensure a level playing field? Being willfully uninformed regarding the meaning of government in a democracy, and bashing the government because some talking heads with obscure connections to right wing fanatics tells them to, will, in the end, make them look pretty foolish. Then they will be the first ones looking for a public servant to tell their sad story to.
8
Upside down society.....grade school teachers literally have the future of our civilization in their hands. Thy should be paid well to make it competitive. Instead, professional athletes, rap artists and actors are paid tens of millions. I ask you, which group provides the most value to society?
7
I am always amazed at how ignorant Americans are about the public services they enjoy and up in arms about saving money, cut out waste - aka cutting taxes. Then complain when they public services they need (e.g., trash pick up, mass transit, elderly care, etc) are not available or have been reduced due to funding cuts. Quit drinking the kool aid about cutting taxes helps the economy and all boats rise! It only helps really rich people and companies will not pass it on to their employees. The level of respect I see for public sector workers outside of the US is phenomenal and they are truly professional. As Americans we are cheap, mean and demanding.
10
Sympathy for Oklahoma?!
You get what you vote for and they vote for people like Scott Pruitt, probably their next governor. So their elected officials are not only dragging down Oklahoma but the entire country while they loot both.
Elect people who have your interests at heart, not their corporate masters. Until you do? You get what you deserve.
9
How's that Make America Great Again con working out for you all who voted Trump? In Sarah Sanders' White House briefing today, she slipped in a line about this "sovereign" nation. Yes, our Supreme Ruler, what a farce. Rise above people, it's CLASS, not RACE. Let's come together and at the very least, and rid ourselves from this current CLASSLESS administration.
6
How does this entire article go without once mentioning how raising families with the income of one parent has an enormous effect on how
'middle-class" you are? The percentage of children - particularly minority children - raised in this environment has skyrocketed in the last 40 years.
sometimes it's a bloated gov't payroll and overly generous pensions that make people in low wage private sector jobs feel like the public sector workers have it better. single payer health care, lower cost education and affordable housing are what most people want. if the gov't can provide it then people don't need high wages to be middle calss
3
As a university employee, my salary is still pretty good and my benefits are excellent, for now, but we've had wage freeze after wage freeze, caps on total earnings, consolidation of positions, and added responsibilities with no additional pay, while the cost of living, taxes, and other expenses aren't standing still. Whereas even just a couple years ago my wife and I could plan to pick up some summer teaching or an extra class and expect some additional compensation, and just expect to work harder to make up the difference, those opportunities have become scarce, too. And major cuts to the programs we run, from cuts to federal grants to rescissions at the local level, make it feel like I'm riding a sinking ship as it slowly sinks into the waves.
7
A healthy nation needs public service. Pubic service keep private industry honest, by encouraging fair pay. The tradition has been that public service was paid less than the private sector, but enjoyed greater security and better benefits. There was a level paying field, competition for workers. Now the middle class has nothing. Over the past 40 years public service has been slashed, burned, and all but destroyed. Private employers have taken advantage of the lack of competition, cutting wages, benefits and job security to those fighting to keep their jobs. Communities flounder with poorly paid teachers, mail that is barely delivered and broken infrastructure. Who benefits? A few dollars more in taxes more than pays for good schools, public transport, and secure streets.
13
I am a skilled, highly educated professional working for the Federal government, as are my colleagues. I came from the private sector, where I could return to make about 10 times the salary I make as a public servant, with the same or better benefits. Our federal salaries have barely budged in years, benfits are being cut for new employees, and we are very understaffed, as Congress punishes public servants for problems of their own making. I am committed to my job and public service. The public is getting quite a good deal at the expense of many public employees.
13
I do believe that if you want good services, you must be willing to pay for them. At the same time, I see property taxes going up year after year even as my income stays relatively stagnant. There has to be some give and take in the high tax states. I know that teachers in Vermont enjoy a much better pension and health benefits than I can ever hope to get, even though I am also a teacher. And their salaries are higher too! So, I do sympathize in some instances with taxpayers who feel stretched already.
5
The same people who are keeping your salary the same year after year are the ones fighting a living wage for public servants like teachers, firemen, and police. It is all sourced from the same forces. We live in a time when the ruling economic class as a whole wants to keep down the rest of us, middle class and poor, to enrich themselves even more. Yes, I am bitter.
We pay our taxes, we have no choice. The ruling economic class has options to evade paying what they ought to pay. We do not.
7
Just curious. Where in California are teachers, firemen and police paid less than multiples of a living wage? Where I live a policeman starts at $74,000. Substitute social worker, food stamp intake worker, etc. and your point is closer to the truth.
2
You are absolutely right, Doug Urbanus. I work for a Bay Area county that runs a hospital and medical centers. Fire, safety, medical personnel, etc. are all paid really well. The social workers, state and head start childcare workers, and eligibility workers are paid peanuts.
5
I've noticed for the past few years--since around the time Scott Walker began waging his fight against public employees in Wisconsin--how much animosity is directed toward me from strangers on social media. Pleasant chats and exchanges have changed dramatically once the person I'm chatting with learns I'm a dreaded public employee. Not that I care much--being blocked by a stranger won't affect my pride at what I do as a public servant.
14
Trolls abound. But even if they are not - those paid-to-incite, they are the "carriers" of hate media. So, you were reduced to public servant = receiver = Democrat = liberal = pro-choice = devil's advocate.
Few are cured of the fears that drive their every vote for the same corrupt GOP - the party of removing the benefits you worked for and the party for the wealthy to own and corrupt every public endeavor. Realize that, in most cases, you'll be wasting your breath. Instead, I'm just ready - for them.
When a "carrier" comes all hyped about black football players or Trump being a victim, I know they were just listening to hate radio or Fox News.
To hyped carriers: "Hello, excuse me, please carry that - somewhere - over there. Thanks."
5
The assault on unionized labor in public education now comes from both major political parties. Neoliberal Democrats now support non-union, for-profit charter schools with almost the same fervor as Republicans. It's disgraceful.
As George Wallace once said, comparing the Democrats and Republicans, "There's not a dime's worth of difference between the two." Sad to say that where support for organized labor is concerned, that's still true.
10
I am a democrat. I do not support charter schools.
11
I am a Democrat and you I do support charter schools. I have 2 nieces ( both Democrats) and they work very hard trying to provide their students with a better future in poverty stricken areas where the public schools are dreadful. I think what you mean is that you are a Democrat who supports the teachers union. Big difference.
You lost me at George Wallace.
2
Welcome to the third-world! Somali and Nepal, you have a new peer called the USA. Thank you GOP and Tea Party, without your vision and guidance we could have never made it so far.
I am just waiting to see the emergence of other poor-country behaviors: teachers require tips to teach your children, fire-department personnel who have to be paid before they put out a fire in your home. All consequences of under-paying and under-investing in public services.
MAGA!
13
And more thing....stop allowing the Republican Party and all of the right wing "think tanks" to purposely divide working people. They've been using this playbook for decades now....black vs white, gay vs straight, immigrant vs non immigrant. This is the strategy of divide and conquer. The GOP has it down to a science. The LAST thing the moneyed elites want is a "united" working class...red state and blue state combined. United we stand, divided we fall.
19
Reminds me of Michael Moore's movie, "Where to Invade Next". He asked some workers at a pencil factory in Germany how many jobs they had ( Implying that surely they couldn't possibly make enough to provide for their families) The workers there could not understand the question. They were astonished to learn that in the U.S. people actually worked two in three jobs. It was totally foreign to them, the concept that work did not have to provide a livable wage.
14
According to the census median personal income is $31K. That's not AJI at the bottom of 1040 but real income. If you make more than that, and are a public servant, be thankful, you are making a lot more than many of us.
8
as made clear in a NYT article a week ago, those who went before have drained the budgets with their featherbedding retirement packages - couple that with the fact that the service in government service is, for many, an oxymoron. alas.
10
I recently retired from a CA County government, and rely on the Public Employee Retirement System which is underfunded. The State made a huge blunder by giving the public safety employees (fire, police, and prison guards) a ridiculously lucrative pension that begins at age 50. This is bankrupting the system, while those those employee groups have politically powerful unions that protect those sacred pensions. All other new employees are given much less pension plans, along with declining salaries and benefits. Those new people who accept that are most defitely not the “cream of the crop”.
12
The same is true in my state, where both my husband and I are career public employees and will be relying on our public retirement system in the near future. To make matters worse, the sate has raided the public pension coffers to make up for budget shortfalls in other areas and failed to repay the debt. 7% of our salaries are automatically taken to fund our pensions, which makes it nearly impossible to fund any other individual retirement accounts, knowing that what we ARE contributing is being essentially stolen and will likely not be available when we need it.
7
There are approximately one million Federal government employees. We do not need more. Let's cut the waste, minutia, and politics of government employment. Maybe with the recovered resources we can raise the pay of hard working, intentional administrators. We need those government employees, at every pay grade, every state, and every agency. We do not need more, different and better of waste and incompetence. The data is in!
3
Let's start by outsourcing the presidency, Congress and Senate to Denmark or Canada.
7
I would have less issue with increasing wages of public service employees if they joined the rest of us in the 401k world. It is absurd that public service employees get pensions after 20 years while the rest of us have to work to 65+ to support their featherbedded benefits.
13
Please let me know where to find these public sector jobs that provide pensions after 20 years — outside of law enforcement. I’d like one of those!
8
I am not sure what public employees are getting pensions after 20 years. All states that I'm familiar with work on a points system, most being 85 points (years of service plus age). The formula is different for law enforcement/fire.
4
NYCTA had a 20/50 pension during the 60's - early 70's. That was changed for new hirees, and now there are a number of tiers, which change just about at every new contract. When I was hired in 1977 the deal was 30/62 at half pay (based on final three years base pay). By the time I retired, it was reduced to 25/55, with 2 percent extra for every year past 25 years of service for employees in my "tier." This a condensed account. Pension system is complex. At least in NYS (and others, IIRC), once one is in the pension system, the state cannot detract from the terms, but they can improve the terms.
1
Although I can't speak for teachers, having experienced professional level work in both the private (well I was a peon), and public sector, the latter was far more remunerative as were the benefits.
5
No, I took a huge pay cut when I left private and went public, and took another huge pay cut during my tenure in public service. My biggest regret in life is keeping this lousy public sector job.
Perhaps the public servants who feel underpaid should go out and see what their skills and talents are worth in the private sector. They may discover that public service pays too little or, perhaps, that public service is a good gig considering benefits, work responsibilities, and retirement benefits. Then they can make a choice. No one is forced to work for the government.
Perhaps you can do a series on the Port Authority police..see how much sympathy that generates.
11
Educational achievement is a proven way to higher incomes. So why are many states cutting back on education funding?
6
Perhaps because the Koch brothers want to duplicate the Kansas Miracle.
12
I think this article gets it wrong in the first couple sentences... "The anxiety and seething anger that followed the disappearance of middle-income jobs in factory towns has helped reshape the American political map and topple longstanding policies on tariffs and immigration. But globalization and automation aren’t the only forces responsible for the loss of those reliable paychecks. So is the steady erosion of the public sector." When private sector wages started to stagnate and benefits declined it was just a matter of time before it spilled over into the public sector. Tax revenues stagnate. Resentment builds that someone on the public payroll is getting a better deal than themselves.
8
Trust me, my $34,000 after taxes and deductions in my wonderful blue state is not a better deal.
1
Contrast what's happening with these public school teachers to what happens at the university level. No matter how large the endowment is that a university has, it enjoys tax-exempt status. Should there be some limit to that? Shouldn't we say that after a certain point, the university's got to pay taxes on their endowment funds and wouldn't it be great to earmark those tax dollars for better wages and benefits for K-12 public school teachers?
7
Sales Tax exempt yes. Endowments immune. No longer. Beginning 2018 "colleges and universities whose endowments exceed $500,000 per student, and that have more than 500 students, are now subject to a 1.4 percent tax on annual investment earnings. The roster of affected schools begins with Princeton and extends through Yale, Harvard, Stanford , and MIT, through colleges such as Pomona, Amherst, Swarthmore, Grinnell, and Williams."
1
Thank you. I didn't realize. 1.4% doesn't sound like much and it would indeed be great to earmark whatever tax dollars are generated for use in funding other education-related goals, such as public school teacher salaries, scholarships for students at universities with less ability to provide financial aid, etc., but it's a start.
The politics of resentment and greed are potent for the authoritarians.
The reality, though, is that the vast majority of public sector workers receive total compensation well below private sector counterparts, and work at least as hard.
Traditional defined-benefit pension plans are good public policy. Seniors with adequate pension income aren't a drain on the social welfare safety net, and support the economy through their spending. Seniors who spent their higher private sector compensation and didn't effectively save for retirement end up a burden on the public. The question isn't why do public sector workers get defined benefits, but rather why doesn't the private sector provide its workers the same? Public policy should encourage defined benefit pensions, just as public policy today encourages employee health care plans.
Yes, there should be some sort of cap on public sector retirement benefits. Anything in excess of $75k/yr seems unconscionable to me, and that total limit should apply to ALL pensions (no double-dipping!). The outliers should be reined in. But the vast majority of public sector workers today will receive very modest pensions.
11
In Michigan at least, defined benefits are a thing long gone for state employees. I suspect the same is happening in other states. Anyone hired since 1997 has no pension and limited health insurance options with 20% premium copays. You can’t assume any more that the low wage of a public employee is supplemented by a pension. It’s just a low wage now.
9
Kansas has switched from defined benefit to defined compensation.
Give up your benefit packages: pensions, lifetime health insurance, etc., and live the life that others do without those perks. Maybe then an increase of salary is due. It used to be public servants would be paid less because they did receive those benefits and understand that trade-off. Now they want both higher pay and keeping the pension, too. States are going broke due to the outrageous pension benefits. Something needs to give.
10
Why should they? The take a pay lower than someone would in the private sector (until recently) for the payout promised later. They pay into the pension plan (and note up until recently many companies provided a pension plan also).
Why should you spend your life working for someone else/ or other people and have nothing to show for it at the end but poor health or poverty. Perhaps you need to raise your standards, either for yourself, or for your employees.
13
The most outrageous pensions paid here in CA are to police, fire, and prison personnel. They are the only state employees who can retire at 50 with 3%/year. But no one will ever agree to trim their benefits because they are "heroes". No teacher or DMV clerk is retiring after twenty years of service with anything even close to a six figure pension.
8
If public employees gave up pensions and healthcare they are going to be a huge drain on the public after they retire. This sounds like stupid policy advice. And it sure plays right into resentment politics. Can we stay away from that, please?
7
Valuable article, but incomplete. The public sector is dominated by administrative workers whose productivity has not benefited from IT. Government has lagged in adopting IT. Improving administrative efficiency would release funds for those who provide services such as those featured in the article -- education, health care, etc. That is not to say that current funding in many states is adequate to the need. What is needed is better management where outcomes are rewarded not simply the department's head count.
5
Nobody wants a public sector job when the economy is doing well. Someone who works in the public sector has to work their whole working life, pay into their pension, their health insurance and after 45 years they can retire with the pension they earned with years of service.
4
I don't think there is any question that our local & state public servants work extremely hard, with modest salaries but benefits that are the envy of most in the private sector. The 800-pound gorilla in the room, however, is the underfunded pension system that most of these workers hope to rely on and which in many, if not most cases, will continue to be a chronic challenge. The results create a cascading problem throughout local and state government that cannot be solved by increasing taxes alone. Even if the majority agree to pay more taxes – if it were as simple as that – the increased taxes are a disincentive for the creation of new businesses in many states and municipalities. Attracting businesses must remain a priority of our elected officials if we are ever going to get on the right side of this problem.
1
Well, just as long as the ruling class is comfortable. That's what matters, right?
19
Precisely. If the rest of us shred each other to bits vis a vis a lot of the comments in this section (not yours) and leave ourselves uncared for, all the better. Fewer mouths for the ruling class to be responsible for.
9
I am in public service and the ones who rail against government are the first to call about things they demand government provide to them
19
For the last 35 plus years, the working class has been treated like road kill....and that also includes public sector workers. This is by design, it just didn't happen. When corporations and the very wealthy have an outsized say in our government, when they control the economy, when they control the political system, when they can stack the judicial system by stealing a Supreme Court seat (Neil Gorsuch), the end result is what you see...all of the benefits of the economy have gone to the top, including this last tax reform bill which gave, incredulously, the moneyed elites more than 83% of the benefit. Feeling a bit angry about this? Wondering why the working class is hanging on by their fingernails? Stop voting for the GOP which is voting for the Kochs and remove the corporate Democrats from the D Party. It's time for the Revolution!
22
Public service benefits - always bring out the benefits-to-be-denied diatribe.
Commenters complain about promised vacation time and promised pensions. Fact: there are many school districts where, benefits included, the total compensation was woefully inadequate when they began and have stalled since they've been there.
Your previously elected school boards approved the old benefit packages and your current board is effectively trying to starve-out those approaching pension age. The debt was always owed, but new school board members incite anger for votes because "it works". They've just been elected; and they're irresponsible to promises made to teachers over the last 20 years.
These days, the next generation’s benefit package is a downgrade. This makes it harder to recruit / retain on low wages.
The charter school movement is advancing in order to cut-away those employees awaiting pensions. Plus, many charter proponents expect to own charters and to provide the "kick-back" services, so they can have their unfettered hands forever in your tax purse.
Our public school systems are one of our most democratic institutions - administrators, PTA's, boards, unions, and legislators serve their interests in the public eye. Wealthy Republicans just want to own the commodity, pay new teachers less, and THEN promote the needs to now listening Republican legislators.
Of course, balance must be pursued. But, to commoditize democracy is to invite tyranny.
11
there’s no reason why the majority of govt services cannot be privatized as ling as if the companies are held accountable. in fact, most companies nowadays are held more accountable through regulations, lawsuits, social media, etc. than govt anyhow.
2
As a child of parents who worked for the federal government and who certainly didn't get rich doing so, I generally support public service workers because they are responsible for maintaining the infrastructure - or the system -- which keeps this country prosperous and strong. That said, there are abuses that should be corrected. In New York certain public service workers -- like the police -- can retire with full benefits, go to work for the state in another capacity and collect their police retirement benefits while also qualifying for an additional state pension. This is ridiculous. Public service workers should only be entitled to one public pension. Should they leave one public service job for another they should have to forego earlier ones to qualify for the last, or at the very least, postpone the earlier. It's this kind of perk that sets citizens on edge and rightly so. It might also be time for public servants to be switched to the same 401k/403b plans that other workers have today. Public employees should be offered a bump up in base salary, a one time payment based on length of employment into a 401k/403b plan to make the pension plan change. They won't like this but it will save their jobs, make those not working in the public sector feel like they are not being ripped off, and allow us to rebuild public services.
8
If you're a conservative and are unhappy with the huge number of immigrants, then you should be strongly supporting higher teacher pay, better public school facilities, programs and reducing the tuition at public universities. Otherwise, industry will continue to clamor for more foreigners for our best paying job, saying that there are not qualified people to fill them. If our education system is excellent, there will not be a need to bring in foreigners to fill those good jobs and those jobs can go to your relatives, neighbors, and friends. However, the conservative push over the past decades to decimate public education is precisely why so many young Americans have to work in low paying service jobs while foreigners are filling up our cities taking many of the best jobs. It is ironic isn't it?
9
Has anyone considered that the various governments involved have DELIBERATELY short-changed their own workers, so that there will be a demand for privatizing ... which just happens to put what used to be government money in the pockets of the 1%, the lobbyists, the cronies?
10
Yet California cities are going bankrupt because of salary, healthcare and pension costs that are growing faster than property taxes.
Our county is struggling to provide public services while greater proportion of the budget is going to paying retirees and the growing health care costs.
California public employees are paid well and cities are going bankrupt. Not sure if this article applies to our state.
9
Most public servants are employed for life. How much is that worth? Private business employees do not have that benefit.
4
Public sector workers have a 'proprietary interest' in their position. They cannot be replaced except for cause. Unheard of in private or non profit sector.
7
When you include pensions, all public employees are millionaires. I just heard a government employee on a financial talk show get on the air and boast that he and his wife have $11 million in the bank. They both, "worked for the government" their whole lives. Of course they also have social security and pension benefits totaling $200K per year. This is ridiculous to try to make the case that public employees should be paid more.
6
Not all public employees get social security, most teachers do not. And there may be outliers like what you cite, but most public employees get modest pensions.
7
This is nonsense on its face. Where did you “hear” this? Fox News.
5
Wow, I'm a public employee who gets $34,000 to take home after taxes.
As if we ever had a foothold. It is not just the public service sector. Many middle class folk, in corporate America lost their foothold a long time ago. Wage stagnation and no pensions have brought us to our knees. Try finding another job in these "glorious" times. They want you to work like a dog for no money. Jobs are not coming back here, corporate America has found a way to make more with less. As we are told, there is another person, waiting to take your place, be grateful that you have a job. How can I pay for public service workers pensions if I do not get a living wage, a raise?
1
Thanks you so very much Big Banks! - who are now again making billions on the backs of taxpayers, thanks to the recent Tax changes.
5
From a political economy standpoint, the US has taken a wrong path since the Reagan years.
The political demonization of the civil service has resulted in the creation of hundreds of thousands of public sector low-income workers as described in this excellent article.
Statistical data show the US working force is experiencing a reverse process of income growth among advanced economies. The once vibrant American middle class has been dwindling year after year.
To make matters worse, Donald Trump was elected president. His tax cut to the wealthy proves the middle class will continue its downward mobility under the America First slogan.
9
There is some truth to the stories about job security, and when the economy goes south and companies are forced to fire everybody, people with stable jobs continue paying taxes and keep local businesses going.
Republicans cite examples of exceptionally high pensions. Everyone knows they're not common (or we'd all being working as clerks at the department of motor vehicles.) But as propaganda, this stuff is pure gold, to hammer the rank and file, like the high rollers in this article.
Now is a time we need leadership, and thrifty fellas like Scott Pruitt and Ben Carson set a fine example of austerity with taxpayer dollars. But at some point we taxpayers need to ask, do we want to fix that rusty bridge before it collapses or after?
10
As a retired civil servant, I can attest to these issues. While I had a better income, it became more and more difficult to hire new staff. We went four years without a pay raise, and in an 8 year span the total raise was 2%. Just because you decide on a career in public service doesn't mean you took a vow of poverty, or that your experience and advanced degrees (in my case a B.A. and 2 Masters Degrees) should not be appreciated and compensated for. Lawmakers in states with large swathes of rural areas decry the depopulation of these areas. In large part many rural communities are supported by the salaries of public employees - be they teachers, public utility workers, public lands employees, county employees, highway employees, etc. If these people can't make a living there, they will leave and the town wither. What I can't figure out is why states feel investing only in giving tax breaks to multi-billion dollar companies takes priority over investing in the citizens of their states who provide vital public services - be they health inspections, mental health workers, teachers, road crews, and so on. As these services degrade so does the quality of life. If a teacher is the sole income for a family of 4 in OK clearly they would qualify for food assistance and be classified as low income. What does that say to kids - we value your teachers to such a degree they are compensated at the rate of uneducated laborers. It's something all citizens need to ponder.
17
How many households generally can support a family on one income? This isn't a problem just for public workers but for everyone. It's been no picnic in the private sector, either, these last 10 years.
5
We have the opposite problem in CA. The Unions are all supporting the all Democratic governments and pols are giving away the moon.
The people are held hostage to these groups and promises are made we are not aware of; only, we discover that we have less services, as we must pay more and more for pensions and other promises made, that we never voted on. Sometimes police fireman even water district PR people make $250,000 a year and then get that at full retirement.
Same thing with BART. While not public there is nothing to stop them from raising prices to cover union (and management) benefits, cycle after cycle. Their health plan? No deductible, whole family coverage, etc. 4 weeks vacay,etc. Low cost of course. They have schemes for permanent overtime and a ticket taker can pull in $150,000.
Unions are monopolies too. If ALL workers had unions that would be one thing. But when only someare unionized... everyone else pays for them. At least here in CA.
We need to find balance and it starts with transparency and fairness Not going to happen.
My heart goes out to those who need protection, and yet i have no sympathy for those who take full advantage of the system at everyone else's expense. Both are happening, but the latter far more here in CA. Gives unions a bad name! They are monopolies of another name. At least here.
9
The average monthly CalPERS pension is $2,717. Pension income is taxable under both federal and state laws. Pensions are not gifts, employees make significant contributions. One should realize that 33% of CalPERS retirees do not collect Social Security. It’s not easy to live large in California on $32,604 a year. Yes, there are exceptions both high and low, and their payouts are factored into the average.
5
In my town 19% of revenue goes to pay off pensions. That money is taken from schools, libraries, roads, and everything else. We cannot even get a lane restriped! We are nickeled and dimed to death and headed for bankruptcy. So you can quote the averages but I am living in a very real reality right now.
Politicians made and make promises that future generations have to pay for that no one else knows about until they are long gone. I am sure you are a hard worker but so are we.
Wow, that pension is more than my income.
1
What's wrong with voting for lower taxes? Its OUR money and not the government's.
1
You are the government. It was installed and run by the people to manage large problems that effect the whole population.
You give your taxes so you don't live in a third world country like situation. Currently. your garbage and sewage goes away and not in a ditch in your backyard. That is whay you don't vote for lower taxes. It gets real.
During an Ebola outbreak, after a hurricane/flooding (when the water needs to be tested, buildings inspected for safety etc.), during a forest fire, it's people like yourself who are asking the government for answers. Use YOUR money to fund these things.
7
Stay off my lawn and our streets, then, for starters.
2
"The corporations have been working at this for decades and are succeeding. With the advent of Citizen's United they now have the perfect way to make their case through misleading and dishonest paid advertising."
They get to write off that paid advertising. We tax payers are subsidizing those wealthy and corporate activists.
5
So the people who are teaching our children and caring for the sick and elderly are working, along with their spouses, 12-16 hours a day to make ends meet. What happened to the 40 hour week that got you a car a house 2 weeks vacation and a savings account. Trump wants to bring back post war glory he's going to have to raise taxes on the rich back up to 90%.
12
The insightful comments to this article gave me hope for a return to Democratic control and a wiser, stronger, fiscally sound America. My hopefulness, however, was quickly dimmed when I recalled that people who vote for lower taxes, less gun control, and forcing unwanted pregnancies to term, do not read the New York Times. Caring for our future is insufficient; we must volunteer to register young voters, encourage registered Democrats to vote this November and again in 2020, and carefully try to persuade uncommitted voters we know to vote in their long term interest.
9
Having democrats hasn't helped NJ. Corzine's administration stole $180 million in public pension money and gave it to the sinking Lehmann Bros. The minute Phil Murphy got into office, my property taxes went up 10%. We need a third party to get us out of this morass. I can't afford either party anymore. This is feudalism.
It is strange that the NYT complains about this dire state in some articles, but when push comes to shove it discouraged the political candidates who wanted to do something about it. telling us they are unelectable (Sanders) or crazy (Trump).
5
Let's just stop elevating Sanders. Clinton wanted to "do something about it" too. (Her plans were never covered. It was all emails and foundation twenty-four seven.) She won the primary by millions of votes, fair and square. The nomination was not stolen from him, the Democratic party, or the DNC. (This was Sanders' narrative (i.e., a fiction). The press did not prevent him from winning by promoting Clinton. (Most close press watchers believe the coverage of Clinton contributed to her loss.) So it's time to bring a close to this distorted narrative.
5
Some posted:
This is proof positive we no longer live in the greatest country in the world. You think this would happen in France? Denmark? Germany? Nope. One serious illness can bankrupt you but 'Murica is still the greatest. Yeah, right.
France, Denmark, Gemany and other "allies" (e.g. dependents) have been riding the US taxpayer gravy train for decades. Time for our "allies" to pay for their own defense. Europeans might have to give up six weeks vacation, cradle to grave healthcare, retirement at 60. But it's not the responsibility of the US taxpayer to subsidize Europe, Israel, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Japan, and others.
6
You sound like a gang member who is asking for a protection fee. Europe doesn't really want NATO, because it's too expensive, and countries are forced to buy military equipment they can't afford.it's US foothold there though. You have to go deeper to understand what is causing the US decay: open borders, WS greed, an MBA-zation of everything, no value on workers, the compensation scheme of managers and CEOs at the expense of workers, Citizens United, the multinationals, and the corruption of certain public institutions as well, see MTA, where the states are milked for money.
2
"Public servants?" Careful, NYT--you don't even have to make it past the headline before your skirt starts showing. They are public employees, not servants. And if you're making $28,000 after taxes in Oklahoma and working just 180 days a year, and not even eight-hour days, you're doing fine, especially when you consider pension and health care. If you can't feed your family on that, then go out and work another five months out of the year, like the rest of us, so that you can afford groceries. The second example, a woman who didn't realize she was low income until a mortgage lender told her so, is similarly ridiculous. I'm guessing she got the loan. Low income people don't get conventional mortgages.
Once again, NYT gets on a crusade and lets the rhetoric get in the way of math and common sense. This stuff about teachers is the worst, whining about being underpaid when, if you double whatever salary they claim to be making, which is fair, given they work only half the year, they're doing just fine. If they want more money, then they should get summer jobs, kind of like their students. And if they can't land second jobs, that tells you volumes about their skills and employability.
If teachers go on strike in my state, I hope they get fired. Every last one of them. They have less right, from legal, moral, ethical and economic standpoints, than the air traffic controllers did way back when. And they should meet the same fate. I'll be first in line to apply for their jobs.
3
Where in the Midwest do you live in which school is in session for only half the year? I am astonished that this country now gets to see the consequences of starving education (are you aware that many other countries far exceed the US in educational standards?) and your response is that they deserve whatever pittance they are paid. Narrow minds think alike, I guess. By the way, are you from the Oklahoma or Kansas Midwest, you know the states that are seeing their collective standards of living decline in response to unrelenting tax cutting?
5
Your ignorance is showing. You have no understanding of what teachers do to prepare for teaching and in the summer to make sure they do the best job possible teaching YOUR children.
6
Jeez, I'm sure glad I'm not a public school teacher in whatever Midwest state you're from. I'll take my poor, Spanish speaking kids in East LA any day, thanks.
3
Absent in all this analysis about the middle class is its unwillingness to cooperate with itself or anyone else to support policies that are universal in their outreach. I see no insurmountable problems; only an immense lack of cooperation. Did the middle class vote for Trump? Does it believe in climate change? Is it segregated? Is it anti everything not itself? The middle class supports the thinking that excludes them from the economy once in office. They are the victims of their own electoral success. Instead of cooperation, the middle accepts and promotes competition; well, it's getting its butt royally kicked. Serious investment in education and retraining require cooperation. Competing internationally in a manner that doesn't destroy our environment requires cooperation, too. But people are so invested in their tribe, corner, philosophy, gender, race, party, etc., that we never will cooperate except immediately after a catastrophe and the middle class will continue taking it right up the middle without benefit of lubricant.
5
As Miss Moore asked her brother , then who do you want to pay for it . Reading some of the comments here , one especially stood out since it is a NYTs pick. If in fact those who want to lower taxes and trim down government ,ie; city and state , then I expect that you still expect to continue having the potholes fixed on your roads , firemen to still put out the fire in your castle , and the police to respond to a home invasion on said castle . These jobs , teachers , police , healthcare , are not volunteer jobs nor for that matter any government job. Clean streets , speedy responses to emergencies , are not a given when you cut taxes and jobs that become low paying . Oklahoma is the prime example of the end result of that insane , the serfs have too much to eat thinking . Fair pay , for hard work is what made America great , you cannot get 200% effort from workers that are doing jobs while understaffed and underpaid , loyalty flies out the window . People need to be allowed the dignity to be able to provide for their families and have time to parent their children .
7
We pay the highest taxes in the nation and our state is still a dump. Look at Newark and Camden. Liberal gov't and high taxes haven't saved us. Corruption is killing us.
Stephanie , then quit electing corrupt officials . BTW what did Chris Christie do for you and your taxes ? The very wealthy just got a huge tax cut while the rest of us get a smidgen of a tax break , who do you think will pick up the tab when it all falls apart . Them or us? Wake up because all the states are about to become a big trash heap courtesy of the guy who just signed the tax reform bill and Paul Ryan and the rest of the Republicans who wanted it .
4
Why does Oklahoma not treasure their precious children and support their teachers? It makes no sense.
4
Children don’t vote. Their parents don’t vote and those that do have been sold a bill of lies by those Republicans in power.
1
You want to see the future of this trend? Look at Mexico and a number of other countries. You get incompetence, graft and private profiteering. I can say this because my grandmother was Mexican. Cops in Mexico shake you down for money when you get stopped because they are not paid enough. Roads and airports in Mexico are privately built and owned. They charge high use tolls, and don't get fixed while the rich buddy of the state governor get the money. Civil society frays. People can only rely on their families. You get dirty water and poor waste treatment if any (yes, people who design the systems need college degrees) unless you live in a private guarded community. The trash gets dumped in the arroyo.
But that kind of government is cheap, taxes are low, and the rich, in particular, don't get taxed (but the tourists sure do). Sound like a vision of Paradise to you? I sold my property in Los Cabos after 30 years of seeing the real cost of bad government on the cheap. That is not what I want to see for my home in the USA.
14
Republicans say government is too big, but last I checked they all want their kids to go to quality schools, want their trash picked up, want their rights protected, want safe food to eat & safe water to drink, want an ambulance to show up if they call 911, and they even want roads for that ambulance to drive on. Guess what, all that stuff costs money. Tax money.
8
"Republicans say government is too big, but last I checked they all want their kids to go to quality schools, want their trash picked up, want their rights protected, want safe food to eat & safe water to drink, want an ambulance to show up if they call 911, and they even want roads for that ambulance to drive on. Guess what, all that stuff costs money. Tax money."
I pay tax upon tax for those things. My real estate taxes pay for the schools. 911 used to come from the county tax now I pay for it through my telephone bill. I pay road use taxes for the roads every time I buy gasoline. I pay a separate water bill not only for the water but based on the footprint of my home and the sewage is doubled from the water usage.
The city and county tell me that they haven't raised my taxes in years but instead I see them sloughing off those increases into privately run or new entities. Those entities are charging me as much monthly as the city/county are charging in taxes.
1
Move to NJ, pay $16,000 property taxes and get no driveway to park in and no central air, and a lousy neighborhood. And potholes galore.
No Thanks. I owned a home there in South Jersey for my mother in law to live in. For a tiny 1600 sq. ft. house on 1/10th of an acre the RE tax was $6800. That's more than I pay for an ocean front house of 1800 sq. ft on 1/2 acre here in NC.
I was so glad to sell that house.
Let's give a hearty round of applause to the Republicans, who have helped to destroy yet another sector of the middle class. You certainly have much to be proud! Your party, the president, the congress and all GOP-controlled state governments can all pat yourselves on the back. You have accomplished a truly outstanding job in gutting regulations that protect the environment, clean air and water, and serve to ensure safe drugs and foods. Hope you enjoy the decline of the United States into a two-tiered dystopian corporate society. Soup lines anyone? Make sure you follow what Fox News has to say about all those lazy, worthless government employees, since you are unable to form an independent thought of your own.
10
Republican propaganda and ideology have created this deplorable situation.
4
A feature not a bug in our "brave" new world of neoliberal paradise.
1
I am sympathetic to the average Trump voter who has watched their portion of the pie shrink. Unsophisticated thinking leads folks both rich and poor to think that keeping more of what they make is the answer, so lower taxes! However, most every person with or without money is directly dependent on the well-being of businesses that create value, and the stock market which is people investing in businesses.
But businesses are ultimately dependent on consumers. Government policies have been lowering the prosperity of consumers with the result of hurting everyone, even businesses that have shrinking markets. The middle class is shrinking. Public amenities such as green spaces, national parks, roads, and clean water and air are all shrinking.
With all this, the market for quality goods is shrinking and with it the jobs that depend on consumer demand. It's a vicious cycle being accelerated by the libertarian and plutocratic instincts of the GOP as well as the Democrats.
Middle class consumers drive the economy. Policies are tilted away from helping and protecting the middle class.
4
You make a good and often overlooked point - the middle class drives the economy. It’s all well and good to cut taxes on businesses - but if the people buying their products can’t afford them, who cares? The new tax cut is skewed heavily to business, something I’m not opposed to. But the cut does very, very little for the lower and middle classes. The wealthy actually benefit more from this tax cut, and they will save it or invest it - and that doesn’t do anything to drive the economy.
It’s all well and good that most people see this tax cut for what it is (and isn’t). It wasn’t designed for the lower and middle classes, as promised, and so there’s very little additional income to spend.
So when Trump and the GOP say this cut will drive GDP growth to 4%, all I can wonder is what blend of weed they’re smoking. I’m betting it’s the one with the most THC.
2
I have less to complain about than many other public workers in education, and yet it's interesting the extent to which this phenomenon holds in supposedly both wealthy and left of center areas, as the gains of somewhat higher wages and more generous benefits tend to be offset for many (or nearly so) by astronomically higher rents, costs of living, and taxes. E.g.: I work at a strongly unionized community college in the Bay Area, with a bachelor's-degree requiring teaching position earning me a gross salary of a bit under 50,000. My healthcare premium is manageable and the care is good, plus the vacation and sick pay are solid. That being said, when it comes to money in my pocket, consider that while my net pay is around 3,000 per month after all taxes, union dues, medical premium etc., the average rent for a low-end 1-BR in the city I work in is 2,000 per month, if not more. Almost none of the faculty members are able to live in town, and many not even in what I would consider the immediate area. On top of that, the process for new hires is so arcane, not to mention stingy, that it regularly takes multiple years to bring on staff when needed, meaning there is always slack to pick up.
2
How many hours do you work weekly? How many months annually?
Excuse the question, but I'm not clear on how pensions are eroding (or perceived to be) municipal and state budgets--aren't these pensions put in a trust in which they are paid out by interest earned on the account? My state position is tied to the markets--I'm not thrilled about that since I take a hit every time there is bad economic news and thus privatization has made my retirement inherently unstable--but for those in alternate state/local systems, how does that work? The method of payouts on pensions itself is generally unclear.
Thank you for highlighting this terribly important issue on a human scale. It never ceases to astonish those of us who believe strongly in the essential nature of community and public services that those who have made bundles of money supposedly due to their ingenuity rather than their ability to cheat the system are so unable to relate to those at any other economic stratum than their own. Yes taxes should be far higher than they are on these folks in particular who have gotten a free ride for far too long, at least since the 80s. Public service should not be outsourced to private companies only looking to make a profit, across the board these are just another siphon of money away from the public good and into the wasteland of private pockets where it does no good. As others have commented is is so appalling that rural red state voters don't get this and that's in large part because the media is dominated by advertisers and not by reporters trying to deliver important information such as in articles like this. I really hope with the current contemptuous group of Republicans in power across the board that the groundswells of resistance that seem to be increasing can start making a dent in this, in the words of another of today's headlines, soul crushing state of the nation.
2
The Republican mantra, including signing a pledge, of no tax raises is driving this country into the ground. Because that mantra and the Republican insistence of cutting taxes on the wealthy has emptied the coffers of the federal, state and local government(s).
One writer laments paying 55% of his income to fed/st/local taxes. How much more can he afford to pay?
Well, he's been completely hoodwinked.
If the rich payed more (and there's no such thing as "their fair share": taxes are not fair, the are the price we pay to live in a civilized society-OWHolmes) then there would be more money in government coffers to pay for: everything!
Republicans have brainwashed people into thinking they shouldn't have to pay taxes. That's just ridiculous. That's how our society works, not just our government.
The first thing we need is to educate people, and get rid of VOO-DOO ECONOMICS. Remember that phrase? George H. W. Bush rightly called Reagan's economic policy this, but then was co-opted into it when he became VP. But it remains the truth.
This has to stop sometime soon, we are beginning to circle the drain. Let's start by debunking Grover Norquist and his no tax pledge. REMEMBER WHEN THE MIDDLE CLASS THRIVES, ALL BOATS RISE! It costs $ you just have to have the political will to acknowledge that tax policy has to change.
4
I recently retired from teaching in a community college in California. My salary was good and my pension is generous but not exorbitant. In short, I am in the middle class. But there will be few to follow in my footsteps. Colleges have found that they can fill classrooms with part-time teachers who are paid low wages with few if any benefits. Monies saved can, and are, used to hire more administrators at wages that are exorbitant and result in extremely generous pensions. Fewer workers in the middle class but more in the upper middle class. As this article illustrates this trend extends not just to higher education but to American society in general. It is not healthy to our nation.
7
~$50K per year is a perfectly fine income for the cost of living in Oklahoma.
Someone complaining about that has an inflated sense of their worth and or no sense of the market.
2
$28000 salary with a Masters Degree level of training. And while we celebrate soldiers for their service, offering them free tuition, VA hospital care and the required "Thank you for your service"...yet for K-12 teachers, we offer only contempt. Strange place, this US of A.
6
Seems like the Tea Party "values" states are the first to throw families under the bus to preserve that all important taxpayer protection pledge to Grover Norquist. There are certainly some states that went overboard with benefits but people have to have an understanding if you don't pay your societal dues going forward you're writing your own ticket to third world status. That being said there should be a reality check.
Government can't afford gold plated retirement packages which is the fundamental basis of the problem. My employer can't afford gold plated packages either which is why they pay me more and I save more.
Government can't afford to pay for early retirement. My employer can't either which is why they don't offer a defined benefit plan. I can retire when I think I have saved enough money knowing full well when that money is gone, I'm toast.
Government can't afford health benefits for life (that is to say they could if we had a national program that included everyone) but barring that common sense approach, pushing it down to the municipal level fractures the bargaining power. There should be state programs.
I can hear the gnashing of teeth from collective bargaining agents. If you kill the golden goose you'll have nothing to bargain for.
And the last time you stood in line at a DMV, went to civil court, or perhaps attempted to understand the finer print of a tax code? I shudder to imagine the anxiety-filled lines at the local food stamp office. All offices of public sevants who, unfortunately, have been so high-handed for so long many of the public you 'serve' have lost all sympathy for the loss of your pensions, your vacations and your inability to be fired.
These losses are sad for you. They have been equally sad for the rest of us for a very long time.
4
THis is one of the series of errors in public policy over the past 30 years that has so weakened our country.
3
It's so depressing and disappointing to see in these Comments so many indignant attitudes towards those in public service. As if the private sector is all so much more efficient, good financial stewards, and committed to the common good; give me a break. Most households are very inefficient and poor at keeping within budgetary constraints as well. If this were not the case then there would not be over $1 trillion in credit card debit. Let's face it, Americans hate paying taxes (any taxes). It's part of the great American myth; getting something for nothing and letting someone else subsidize our lifestyles.
9
Most of our subsidies go to the private sector, to Walmart and Amazon.
Taxes are the price of living in a civilized society.
Of course, some would argue that the current crop of Republicans aren't civilized. But that is for another discussion.
9
The media's obsession with appearing even-handed seems to prevent them from calling balls and strikes objectively.
Poorly paid public servants is a problem of the red states (not just conservative regions). Blue states, such as my state of Oregon, may have problems with their pension programs (as was noted in a recent Times article), but you don't see teachers in blue states protesting. Blue states pay their teachers better because their citizens are aren't clamoring for tax cuts.
Please don't say this is a problem of both red and blue states. It isn't. That's not biased, that's calling balls and strikes objectively.
3
Wisconsin was once a blue state, but we have Scott Walker's Act 10.
1
I'm in a blue state, and make a lousy public sector salary, due to a huge pay cut and large deductions. Don't assume that all public sector workers in blue states are middle class. We aren't any more.
Even Democratic states that are not cash strapped are choosing to privatize services. In my particular case it is public libraries in California. I work as a circulation clerk, a reference librarian, and a cataloger. Some of my work is simple but also a good portion of it requires a broad base of knowledge and some specialized skills. Public libraries have become a safe refuge for the homeless, for the unemployed, and for many other people who cannot afford Wifi or a printer at home. As a result, some added responsibilities include resume writer, Microsoft Office private tutor, technology troubleshooter, researcher for credible medical resources, legal resources, and (sometimes even) social services.
My county has hired a company that pays all levels of employees minimum wage or very close to it. Meanwhile, my 18 year old son, who works in the kitchen of a local fast food chain, makes more money per hour than I do!
Also, many public servants, such as myself, are now forced to work part-time so they do not have to pay benefits. Positions that were previously full-time are broken down into much smaller increments of sometimes 5-10 hours a week!
I love my job and I have worked in libraries for many years. When I moved here recently and discovered this disparity I was dismayed. I could find other work but this is what I have done for many years and what I want to do - to serve my community. I can't help but feel resentful that my contribution is so undervalued.
10
Yes, while California's politics may be solid blue, our actual policies seem to be becoming redder all the time. I am sad to hear of yours and our libraries' situations.
According to the Congressional Budget Office in 2017 a federal employee earns 34% more in salary and benefits than a comparable worker in the private sector with similar education and experience. State and local governments cannot afford to pay their people more because they have too many employees, the result of local politicians padding the labor ranks with unneeded personnel who "know someone".
1
This may be true for relatively unskilled workers but the opposite is true for professionals. Congress actually passed a law a number of years ago recognizing this, requiring that Federal salaries be increased gradually until they catch up with the private sector. But every year Congress finds a fiscal emergency which allows them to avoid paying the legally required increase that year.
All part of the race to the bottom. As long as people don't want to pay for goods and services provided by workers earning living wages they themselves can expect to have their own purchasing power continuously degraded. And the cycle continues.
The world is what we make it. This is what we are choosing every single day.
9
This article is a joke, correct? How can you do a story like this and not factor in the retirement benefits that public workers get? There are virtually NO private companies who provide a defined benefit pension plan AND health care benefits which most public workers get. In NY, the public workers are bankrupting the rest of us.
5
I suggest you get a job in the public sector if you think it's so cushy. Instead of criticizing those of us who have pensions, you should be wondering why you don't.
7
As a visitor to Apalachicola I met an old man who was fixing his beautiful home up for sale. He was moving to assisted living in Tallahassee. He spent his working career working for the federal government in the Agriculture Department. He was extremely proud of his service and the many breakthroughs and accomplishments made while he was there. What made him so disheartened was that government service was no longer looked upon as a noble endeavor. It made me wonder if , by denigrating government service, we are creating a self fulfilling problem.
8
article leaves out the other side of public servants. Namely, the thousands of six-figure, pensioned employee who work in wealthy states and D.C. The wealthiest counties in U.S. are in the D.C. area. Not quite sure there is all that much "public service" involved either.
7
Grover Norquist's anti tax crusade which holds sway over the Republican party has had a pernicious effect on governance in a modern complex society. Teachers cannot earn a living wage in Red states. The idea that taxation and gov't spending are unalloyed evil is grinding down the quality of life in the country. Now we see the spectacle of borrow and spend Republicans in Washington with over a trillion dollars added to the national debt. So Norquist and his crew want to make the Federal gov't like state gov'ts that have to balance their budgets each year. This of course is used as a ploy to starve the gov't of funds. This nihilistic dangerous governing style is going to be harder and harder to reverse.
4
Ayn Rand Lives (unfortunately).
This article glaringly omits the many perks of public sector teaching. 2.5 months of summer vacation (and you can earn $ during this time if you want), 15 or so vacation days for various religions, pension eligible in your 50s in most states, good health care, and a very low chance of getting fired (even if you are not that good).
5
Feel free to try it, and let us know how that goes.
2
Apply now - there are plenty of openings!
4
This is a great article. Thank you for the attention!
2
I like my governments to present an effective, competent face--and this is hard to do when their employees are losing ground to their peers. Below inflation pay increases forces those who can leave to leave, and makes replacing them hard.
In a country with an economy that is growing faster than inflation and the population, it is close to criminal that we do not keep the job of providing essential services viable. Our tax system is increasingly regressive, apparently because we now favor private jets for a very few to home ownership and education for the many.
This is how countries die.
9
It is a pendulum.Governments can’t meet their pension liabilities.Prior union and benefit cost were in-realistic. Best example I am aware of is Chicago.
1
Teachers, police officers, and other public workers are losing their place in the middle class because wealthier tax payers take the term "servant" as a description of public "servitude". All public workers are seen as simple, second rate folk who couldn't make it in the "real" economy. They are demeaned and maligned for inept, and pointless paper pushers. Having taught for 30 years in public schools for second rate wages, I am genuinely offended by any American who drapes the mantle of servitude over my career choice. I worked damned hard and gave every ounce and hour I had to my students. Until taxpayers understand our simple sacrifices, their dismissive attitude will not change. Nothing will improve for public workers.
14
Plenty of people sacrifice every day to support their families and yours.
1
Apparently we workers in the developed world are all making too much money.
"The World Bank is proposing lower minimum wages and greater hiring and firing powers for employers as part of a wide-ranging deregulation of labour markets deemed necessary to prepare countries for the changing nature of work.
A working draft of the bank’s flagship World Development Report – which will urge policy action from governments when it comes out in the autumn – says less “burdensome” regulations are needed so that firms can hire workers at lower cost. The controversial recommendations, which are aimed mainly at developing countries, have alarmed groups representing labour, which say they have so far been frozen out of the Bank’s consultation process."
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/apr/20/world-bank-fewer-regulatio...
Get what you need from the 1%: http://www.nber.org/papers/w24085
From the National Bureau of Economic Research. The public workers hold together society in large part to benefit the folks at the top. Make them support their fair share.
4
Americans are too jaded to understand public service and the right to retire. Always that - I’ll make it rich and win the lottery some day! Or something! People who work for a living are suckers!
3
The mission of the public sector is to enrich society.
The mission of the commercial sector is to enrich the investor class.
Everything else follows from those facts. Give the investor class the reins of the public sector and guess who gets enriched. Question is, why doesn't the investor class appreciate society and the public sector? Are they that selfish and arrogant, or just that ignorant?
3
It's called Republicanism with Democratic complicity. When you put them together you get...oligarchy!
You Trumpists who thought it would be funny to burn down the house, are you laughing?
3
More than just tax cuts and anti-government sentiment is involved here. Garbage used to be retrieved here with three-man crews (one driver, two guys loading the truck). Now the driver is alone and he uses a robotic arm attached to the truck. New water and electric meters can be read remotely. All kinds of clerical tasks have been automated. Sadly, it seems like government workers do not benefit from improvements in their productivity.
Taxes are the price of living in our society. It appears no one wants to pay them, but EVERYONE wants the services they provide. People, this is the old adage of 'having your cake and eating it, too.' Fortunately, I work in a state that still values teachers and public servants. With my experience and education (my graduate degrees are from the state's medical school), I could earn more in the private sector. I trade that income for a modicum of security and participation in a better health care program (for which my wife and I contribute about $12K per year). I can be terminated for incompetence, but I cannot be fired on a whim as some friends have experienced in the private sector.
5
I don't feel a modicum of security in NJ, where they cut my pay and keep raising my taxes.
Progressive Mid Atlantic, Carl Zietz? As a public employee for the State of NJ, I haven't seen a raise in 4 years. My salary has been flat. And u wouldn't believe what I pay for my "generous" benefits each month.
4
It is common practice to conceal salary and benefits for government employees. Here's a story last week from Massachusetts.
Just another day in the public sector:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/04/17/more-hidden-mass-state-poli...
"Under fire for failing to disclose pay data, state officials last week quietly released new State Police figures, revealing more than $3.4 million in additional payouts over four years."
"Most, if not all, of the money appears tied to a single, generous perk: Troop F members got a $40 per diem for driving their own cars to work."
3
Nice deal - police sergeant makes $275K. Why bother being a doctor or a lawyer when you can make more in "public service" $40 a day to drive your car to work! I have to pay to drive to work.
3
And these State cops won't spend a day in jail although they blatantly lied and stole from us, the taxpayers. Then the Governor or his cronies have no will to reprimand them and do their jobs. Instead they farm it out (more of an expense) to have it investigated by private agency.
2
This is successful conservatism. There are only two priorities for conservatives, the military and the rich. Everything else is a waste of money.
1
This is proof positive we no longer live in the greatest country in the world. You think this would happen in France? Denmark? Germany? Nope. One serious illness can bankrupt you but 'Murica is still the greatest. Yeah, right.
4
Ever since Reagan, there has been a vicious myth spread by Republicans at state and national levels that government is the problem. This is illogical and disingenuous, aimed at cutting social services and benefits for the poor and middle class while lowering taxes for the rich. This cause is served by right-wing think tanks and Congressment paid by billionaires who convince the ignorant that progressives and liberals want to tax their hard-earned money to give away to undeserving people of color. Racial resentment of affirmative action has been tapped by the agitators on the right to increase inequality for three decades. But they have done so only at the cost of cutting out the ground from under their own feet. A society which does not pay its teachers or value public servants who work hard and provide goods the private sector cannot or will not, only achieves its own rapid decline. Why should a very few people (some corporate executives and investors, others who are speculators and lobbyists, as well as the politicians paid by them) make a lot of money only to live in a society falling apart at the seams with potholed roads, collapsing bridges, polluted air and water, deaths by gun violence, corrupt politicians, reduced access to health services and social security, and poorly educated, unemployable, and resentful generations of younger men and women ?
4
Reminds me of the scene in the church in the movie Blazing Saddles in which the members of the congregation piously sing, "...our town is turning to ****."
A generation ago, private sector workers generally had better pay and benefits relative to public sector workers. Today, public sector workers enjoy comparable salaries and generally far superior health and retirement benefits. Since private sector workers outnumber public sector workers, and since private sector workers 'pay' (through their taxes) public sector workers, this is an untenable situation. Private sector workers will not in great numbers tax themselves (or vote into office politicians who will tax them) to pay public sector workers better. Period. End of.
4
Uh...public employees also pay taxes and thus contribute to their salaries.
2
We want it all, we want it now and we want someone else to pay for it. Is it any real wonder we wound up with Donald Trump as president?
1
Right wing Corporatists now control much of the media. they work full time around the clock to convince people that unbridled free enterprise is good and government is bad. The best models for happy and productive nations can be found in Scandinavia where Democratic Socialism is the prevailing system. The 19th Century style bare-knuckle capitalism being promoted by the Republican Party is the antithesis of a civilized nation.
2
Blame this, no matter where you live, on how the unions have made municipal leaders bow down to them on every union negotiation. In Coral Gables, one police sergeant was able to retire in his early 50's @ full salary. And the monthly pension was = to his ending salary, because he was able to cram in unused vacation & sick time. So this woman is getting the sharp end of the stick based on her fellow & prior employees. Control rampant abuses and the problem is fixed. Immediately.
4
There is an additional danger to underpaying and undermining public servants - the danger of inviting corruption.
The triangle of fraud is opportunity, need, and rationalization. Underpaying government officials makes them vulnerable to bribery as it creates the need. Publically denigrating them gives them ammunition for rationalization ("If they are going to treat me like I am corrupt, I might as well reap the benefits of being so..."). And I can assure you, nobody is better positioned to exploit our systems than those who are forced to work within their arcane and Byzantine structures - hence, the opportunity. All three requirements for fraud fulfilled.
If the public REALLY wants to fight corruption, the solution is to start paying their government officials better and praising their accomplishments - this serves as insulation, both psychological and economc, against the temptations of fraudulent behavior. We all benefit from this, public and private sectors alike.
3
Everything described in this article has been happening in the private section for 20 years. I have had 20 years of 2-3% pay raises combined with 5-10% increases in the cost of my benefits. My defined benefit pension was frozen after I had been with the company for 27 years so instead of getting $4,500/month I will be getting $1,500/month. I have survived 3 major downsizings. Our public employees have top-drawer benefit and pension plans that I pay for through my taxes. I'm not sure why they deserve special treatment?
6
And, most private sector employees have defined contribution plans if that.
1
Special treatment? Oh please. These people were offered a job with lower salary than a private sector one. In order to sweeten the pot, they were offered a generous pension and benefit plan. Those that took those jobs are simply getting what was agreed to when they were hired. You are only complaining because you got the rug pulled out from under you and therefore, anyone that has something better than you is undeserving.
That you were treated poorly by your employer and essentially kicked to the curb financially because they they went back on the deal they made has nothing to do with what others get. If you got your 4500 a month and a public sector worker suggested you were getting special treatment, you would probably go on about how you worked for whatever you have and are simply collecting what was promised to you when hired. Well, they can say the same thing to you now.
Disclaimer: I am not and never have been a public sector employee.
7
Sorry, I'm a public sector employee, and I can't remember a pay raise, only a huge pay cut. And taxes here keep going up.
Decimation of public service is the only core belief for all groups of the Republican Party. For Republicans, serving in government is only good insofar as you can do the following:
1) Enrich yourself, your family, and friends
2) payback donors with massive tax cuts and other gutting of regulations
3) Always portray yourself as the victim of some other group(s)
4) Denigrate the poor, and also the the middle class while we're at it
That's why Republicans run for office.
3
Sounds more like Clintonism. Make millions giving speeches, get contributions to the foundation from people looking for favors, blame everyone for your defeat in 2016 except yourself, and call half of the voters deplorables.
To all who will bemoan overly generous health insurance plans and benefits to public employees, do not ask why "they" deserve those benefits. Ask why yours have been taken away.
9
Bing Ding Ow says:
"....see the damage the unions did in Detroit, Flint, Stockton, Youngstown --"
I hope after you read that article on the Oregon pension system that you don't believe middle class and working class pensions in Oregon are also around $70,000 a month. I have three retired friends in Michigan who have pensions of $17,500, $19,000, and $22,000 respectively. Please don't equate the exceptions with the masses, and blame pensions and unions for the demise of the middle class.
3
I agree the Oklahoma teachers are grossly underpaid, but describing the teacher's salary in terms of Adjusted Gross Income is a tactic often used to portray compensation in the lowest possible terms. The common comparison is gross income (which is used for other salaries and pay scales in article). Without seeing her tax return, or using Adjusted Gross for all comparisons, the picture given is not complete.
4
Come on NYTimes! "But globalization and automation aren’t the only forces responsible for the loss of those reliable paychecks. So is the steady erosion of the public sector." THE #1 REASON is PREDATORY CAPITALISM and what it breeds: INCOME DISPARITY AND RAMPANT MATERIALISM.
5
The share of jobs in the US that are union has declined dramatically, so now public-sector jobs tend to stand out as well-paid and a target for squeezing down so fatcats can live higher on the hog and spared the taxes as well as paying the pay so others can live decently.
2
Wait this in an article on the dismal state of public servants throughout the US? Where is data from the blue states? Cherry picking the states which traditionally vote against government help/ interference and then giving voice to their complaints of not being helped is most vexing.
Your data, even when it considers teachers in public schools always has a demographic consisting of disgruntled humanities teachers. It’s time you asked the middle school and high school teachers in STEM what they think of this low pay and lousy benefits scenario. Look no further than transparent California to see rather generous salaries to qualified teachers. The other day the times ran an article on public servants from Oregon receiving obscene retirement benefits, 106% of their pay. One doctor happened to make 76000/month. Why not find out how many such folks there are and pit them against the others with dismal benefits. Why not have a map of where public servants can hope to remain middle class. Perhaps they can all move to the blue states and their pay cheques might work towards changing their votes towards democrats in government.
Perhaps one needs to come to terms with what this might actually signify, the demise of the way humanities is being taught. Might explain why the University of Wisconsin is shutting down a lot of humanities departments. Folks can try to cling on to dinosaur methods of teaching history or literature, but life and methods evolve.
1
I'm in a blue state and make a low public sector salary with a huge pay cut, and pay high blue state taxes. Ouch....
After the fall of the Communist government in Russia people would say, "Every thing they told us about Communism was a lie, but every thing they told us about Capitalism was true."
When Rick Santorum was in the senate he tried to make the weather information provided by the National Weather Service to the general public illegal to share with the public. Trump's appointed administrator of NOAA is the chief executive of AccuWeather, one of the companies that would have benefited from Santorum's efforts.
In south Louisiana the ambulance services are contracted out to one private company that takes every opportunity to bill the citizens for their services.
There are now private companies who provide DMV services, for an additional fee, and the people at the actual state office of the DMV deliberately work at a snail's pace to make wait times unbearable, driving business to the private companies. The garbage pickup is also contracted out to a private company. If a citizen does not package their garbage to the terms of the negotiated contract they won't pick it up. They won't pick up tree limbs and brush unless it is cut up into four foot lengths and tied into a bundle or placed in garbage cans, or you can call them to make a special request which takes from a week to a month to be picked up. They won't pick up tree limbs or trash in front of an empty lot. It's not in the contract. Public safety and sanitation is of no concern. Making money is the goal
As long as we live in a society that believes taxes are an unnecessary evil and that wealthy members of society should be exempt from paying them, it will be increasingly challenging for the middle class to prosper, and for the poor to get the help they need, and our country will continue to decline.
3
Government jobs are middleclass jobs and when you vote to "drown government in the bathtub" you vote against yourself - every time
Hopefully the good people of Oklahoma and the other red states where government workers are being starved learn their lesson and vote for themselves.
It would be helpful if the reporter asked each of the people highlighted in this article who they voted for in the past 10 years - do they even bother to vote? How do they think their state got to this point where a teacher with 28 years of experience is paid poverty wages and qualifies for all of the government programs including Medicaid, Food Stamps, WIC and Section 8? How many does she use?
3
The article makes an uncomfortable suggestion that jobs in government sector were created for redistribution of wealth, not because we needed them. The key to our survival and prosperity is growth. Redistribution of wealth does not solve this problem. Any employment, regardless of whether it is in the private or public sector, essentially depends on growth. We cannot exempt the public sector from this imperative. Ensuring a certain level of income regardless of growth will not work. Ever! We cannot promote inefficiency because inefficiency will kill our economy, regardless of whether this inefficiency is in the public or in private sector.
3
If wealth is not redistributed, it will accumulate in the upper crust's bank accounts and leave most other citizens in declining and poor standards of living, Marx was right about that and we are seeing it gradually happen in the US. When average people who are also the nation's workers don't have the money to go shopping like they used to, the whole economy will gradually slump into shabby conditions. It is taxes and spending on govt operations like education, roads and highways, parks, public assistance, refundable tax credits and so forth that keeps the economy as a whole doing better. Your bankers, your real estate sales persons, your store clerks and your "garbologists" should daily thank God for taxes and govt spending.
2
What does redistribution of wealth have to do with public or private sector? We have redistributed wealth to the rich, period, because they pay no taxes. In fact, private enterprise takes bigger subsidies than public - look at how Bezos and the Walton family milk the taxpayers for BILLIONS.
It's not just public servants; it's a huge chunk of the *entire* middle class in this country that is losing ground rapidly.
For instance, this year my company gave ZERO raises to anyone - yet the cost of everything we employees have to pay for has gone up. I feel myself & my family sliding out of the middle class bit by bit, despite good educational credentials, professional certifications, and a lot of hard work.
7
Higher level view: Public employees under long term attack is part of continuing attempt to cutoff access to the middle class for women, minorities, and the 'others'. Public employment and teaching were one of the few avenues to the middle class for such groups following WW2. Not surprising that there has been a concerted effort to shutdown that pipeline.
6
We see foreign teachers here using H1b visas. Supposedly they are able to teach as well as their American counterparts who are looking for jobs. They're preferred due to the lower pay.
This is such a bad move on so many levels.
2
Not in CA where public unions have fleeced almost every municipality. They're closing schools, libraries, parks and all sorts of services not due to a lack of funds, but because the public employee unions have created such a honey pot of wealth for their members that they are bankrupting the cities and counties to pay for their lavish pensions and benefits. There is not a single private job in the USA that comes with anything near the pensions and benefit packages bestowed on our "public servants". There are thousands of people retiring in their 50's with $100-300k a year pensions. The equivalent to 6-10m in the bank... Meanwhile the avg American has less than 10k in savings.
6
Of course what you said is true but it doesn't fit the narrative of the poor public employee struggling to survive while working themselves to the bone for the benefit of others.
3
I worked in government I.T. but left for the private sector. Not only is the salary $30,000 higher, but the company I work for shows appreciation by giving us lunches, picnics, and several large events throughout the year. In the public sector, we even had to pay for our own holiday party.
When cybersecurity is becoming ever more critical, it's extremely foolish of government to pay so little in the I.T. sector.
7
Pieces such as these always conveniently either glaringly omit or understate two things. First, public employees on average pay 30% - in terms of premiums, deductibles and co-pays - what their private company peers do for healthcare. Second, they pay close to nothing (merely 2% in the case of Chicago teachers) into their defined benefit pensions, and are guaranteed a benefit that had they been in the private realm would have had to pay in close to 25% of their salaries to earn. These are facts. Our sympathies at the seemingly low take home pay of these folks is completely without merit.
3
Inasmuch as we're living the only life we're going to get, it would seem to me that if one is living in a state that is too retrograde to change through the ballot box, it then becomes necessary to vote with one's feet.
2
The federal employee "minimum wage" is now $100,000. 500,000 federal employees make over $100,000 per year. That doesn't count pensions, health benefits, etc. It's a total ripoff of taxpayers.
6
Because, money? Words and numbers with no logic. Nice try.
2
"The federal employee "minimum wage" is now $100,000." What on earth are you talking about? That is not even *close* to being even remotely accurate.
1
Which federal employee? a congressman?
The goal of the Republican Party is to downsize the public government while turning over more and more government functions to private corporations, whose CEO's are only obligated to the shareholders. Under the GOP plan, first they need to get rid of as many public servants as possible by making the public government work as badly as possible. Then once private corporations take over most government functions, private employees of these corporates, who serve no one but the CEOs, will see their salaries and benefits slashed in a race to the bottom. Soon, the U.S. will be run much like the Communist Party runs China: Low salaries, no employee protections, no health and safety laws. Altthough I am only 61 years old, I am planning to retire from teaching this year. What is the point in working any longer if the Republican Party is constantly attacking your livelihood and income? Let private employee, not public servants, educate America's children. It won't be my generation's problem. It will the next generation's problem.
1
I volunteer with a local group that organizes a food distribution at a local school once a month. There are people waiting in lines going out the doors. Many of those receiving food are school employees. Telling times, it's tough to earn enough to feed your family. I live on Cape Cod.
5
Interesting to juxtapose this article with the one last week about how almost every community in the country is going broke over pensions to "public servants". I'll save my tears for someone who is not getting a six figure pension.
11
Most government employees don't get anywhere near six-figure pensions. I'm a Federal employee (typing this on his lunch break, in case you're wondering), who will retire at the end of this year. At that point I will have had 32 years with the government, and 36 years total experience in my field, along with a master's degree. Including Social Security, my retirement will be about 50k, roughly 60% of my current salary, which is the average percentage that retirees in other industrialized countries get (in America it's more like 40%). And if you think I'm going to apologize for getting what people in most other industrialized countries get, you have another thing coming.
America is still the richest country in the world; it can afford decent income for its retirees.
4
Interesting to juxtapose your comment with the fact that the teacher of 17 years featured in the article is making $28,000. Yeah, maybe her pension will be 6 figures over 5 years, if she's lucky. The pension problem is in some cases the generosity of it (though that is skewed towards policy makers who set the benefits, go figure), but the real problem, if you care to read up, is the irresponsbility of those managing the pensions underfunding them. Again, to cut taxes to win elections, go figure.
2
She is never going to get a six figure pension. My decades in public employment will never get me a six figure pension either.
That's the New World: Neoliberalism à l'état pur! A clear and better still example is Argentina with the Panama Papers president Macri (who had business real estate affairs with #45), who, with all his cabinet (who also hide their billions on the so-called Paradises-tax-heavens) are destroying the middle-class, holding jobs like exactly their American counterparts, such as teachers, social workers, etc. The purpose is clear: for elites to survive in their privileges, they have to suppress the heart of democracy, its citizens.
3
Well...this article may be true for the red states particularly in the southeast and midwest, but on the west coast and northeast, it's a different story.
As someone who was in teaching for 20 years and another 20 years the owner of a small business, I found the opposite to be true. That is, public employees, when the entire pay package is taken into consideration, actually did better than private employees in many areas with the exception of high paying hi tech areas in large cities like the SF Bay area.
Public employees make up much of their difference with the defined benefit plan retirement package. Indeed, Oregon as just one example, is suffering from an excellent retirement system that pays state funds and social security upon retirement, easily one of the best in the country. It's just that the state accountants did not plan well for future costs and payments now causing financial problems for the state today.
In reality, I was never able to match the salaries and benefits of the county, city or state systems. I finally stopped interviewing candidates because they expected the same benefits as civil service, and when hired, constantly complained about the lack of matching benefits regardless whether salaries were higher or not.
So...this reporter needs to cover a wider expanse of the US to make a more accurate report. One of the reasons private contractors have taken over many government jobs is that it costs the state less in the long run. Simple.
9
I, too, was a public employee (State of Michigan) for 35 years. To assert that public employees continue to receive defined benefit pensions is untrue. Most public employees are now on a defined contribution plan.
Another false statement is that contracting public services to the private sector saves money. Unless of course by "saving money," one means that you get less service for less money. In Michigan, experiments to turn over routine state highway maintenance, low-security state prisons, prison food services and veterans' services were all quickly scrapped when it became apparent that the private sector couldn't or wouldn't get the job done.
I'm pretty much over hearing about how much better run the private sector is compared to local, state and federal government. It's not. The one thing the private sector can and does do better than anyone is make money. That, however, is not the function of government.
7
We could go back to the mid 1800's and not have public schools, or much of anything public. If you don't need or choose public services why be taxed to pay for them? Actually, the only thing the swells really need is a strong military since that would be difficult to accomplish privately. As for the constitutional directive "to provide for the General welfare", they have limited interest.
4
Even the military need to know how to read, do math, a bit of science, etc.
2
Any which way in which ordinary workers can be undermined has been the rule since about 1980. What a shame.
5
It doesn't see that anyone is considering the total compensation, only the base pay. There are huge benefits to public sector employment that most people get (but not everyone). Healthcare, retirement (pensions), etc. that everyone knows about, but how about 2 months off during the summer, and how many weeks off for various holidays. I'm not saying you can spend that, but it's still form of compensation. Most school districts have years that run 180 days. Most people in the private sector start w/ 260 days before holidays and vacation. Even after accounting for that, they may be at 230 days. School employees are getting nearly 50 more days off. That's over 2 additional months off. If you were to work for that entire time, the salaries would appear higher, but again, you need to look at total compensation.
9
Teacher pay in our district has been frozen for 5 years. Also, the pay scale has been frozen for 5 years. For the folks at the top of the scale it's been a minimal inconvenience. But I know teachers with masters degrees with 7 years experience being paid as though they hired in only two years ago. About $50k a year. Great health insurance, mediocre retirement, and not enough money to make a make a mortgage payment in a lower middle class neighborhood in the county they work in.
Meanwhile the private sector is starting young people with similar qualifications at close to $100k. The best young teachers are leaving the profession.
4
Most public employees are not teachers and work 12 months a year.
Are you joking? Look at NYC's uniformed services, who not only make a decent salary but more importantly their benefits and pensions are out of control.
Now no one can deny the demanding nature of their jobs and they do deserve good wages, but their pensions need to be re-evaluated. A guaranteed 50% pension after less than 25 years, based on total salary (including overtime) results in most receiving pensions of $100,000 per year at less than 50 years old, and then their are the disability pensions where most every uniformed service member looks forward to from day 1. If they are disabled then why are so many running marathons, playing softball and having physically demanding jobs post retirement on disability? I'd like to see those legitimately disabled receive 100% and the scammers a one-way ticket to jail.
15
And these jobs are primarily kept in the family (or for close friends).
Ever notice that?
8
Some of us may be asking ourselves, 'what's a pension?'.
11
You should be asking that. You should also be asking why you are not getting one. Hint: it's not because of public sector workers.
6
I'm always amused to see how these Red States are so enameled with Tea Party and the whole small government movement, yet they are the ones least afford to do so, given their comparatively heavy reliance on public sectors (both state and federal assistance), even if they hate to admit as much.
I'm generally of two minds about public sector jobs, and I'm not someone beholden on having x number of jobs, just for the sake of keeping people employed (for the salary, health coverage, and pensions upon retirement). We know for a fact that technology has changed the landscape in private sectors (not just manufacturing, but also in service sectors, to even high-end jobs like finance, and more), so much so that they need less number of workers that are now more productive than ever before. While there are public sector jobs that must always be done in person (eg. firefighters), so many clerical and admin jobs should and could have been redundant, given the digitization of everything.
While I feel for those whose jobs and livelihood are at stake, but part of me keeps thinking back to the same (il)logic that has plagued USPS. Do you keep funding a post office branch to stay open when a large part of its function is no longer needed? And, is it really that bad a thing when some of the work (eg. road repair) is privatized, particularly if competitive bids can bring costs down while maintaining service level?
Ultimately if you're poor and can't afford it, you have to adapt and change.
4
From the AP wire today:
"AP-NORC Poll: Amid strikes, Americans back teacher raises
WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans overwhelmingly believe teachers don't make enough money, and half say they'd support paying higher taxes to give educators a raise. The findings of the new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research come amid recent teacher strikes and other protests over low pay, tough classroom conditions and the amount of money allocated to public schools in several Republican-led states. Tens of thousands of Arizona teachers voted last week to strike after rejecting an offer of a 20-percent raise, because it didn't include a vow from state lawmakers not to further cut taxes before providing more money for the state's schools."
THIS IS YOUR WEDGE, DEMOCRATS. BEAT THE CHEAPSKATE GOP OVER THE HEAD WITH IT AND WE'LL TOSS 'EM ALL OUT...
5
The anxiety and seething anger that followed the disappearance of middle-income jobs in factory towns has helped reshape the American political map and topple longstanding policies on tariffs and immigration.
has helped or have helped?
1
I can't tell whether the right wing's animus towards teachers stems from their hatred of an educated and informed public, or from a desire for a society wherein the plutocracy doesn't have to share anything ever. Either way, the target is anger and fear, and it's easy to toss red meat to the base, accusing teachers of getting "frills" like healthcare (paid for by teachers in NJ), which should of course be provided to ALL workers. And while we fight over the crumbs they steal the dinner.
7
Public servants are losing their spot in the middle class and some of that can be attributed to hiring more and more administrators for high salaries who are not necessary. CEO's of state run hospitals now make millions while nurses and blood bank staff take second jobs. The "business model" has taken over the country and has not helped the middle class.
9
It's interesting that AI seems to be aimed at replacing the essential workers and not the expensive admins.
2
It's time to stop lumping teachers into low-skill public servant groups. They are required to have a graduate degree and continue with their professional development throughout their care (pretty sure the only other group that does that are doctors). They are also expected to keep everyone’s kids safe (from guns even) while getting them ready for exams, prep school, Harvard, you name it. They are also first responders, for many situations, and are required by law to report abuse, which means they are trained to know the signs. Oh, yes, they are also expected to be able to create data-driven lessons for every class, and to show how those lessons meet state standards. They usually get a 20 minute lunch, too. As for summers off, a myth. So sure call them public servants if you want (research shows teachers are intrinsically motivated and serving is part of that) but treat them and pay them like the professionals they are. You shouldn’t need a corner office to get some respect!
12
FWIW, those continuing ed requirements are for any professional who needs a license to practice. I’m a nurse married to a CPA; we both have annual professional ed requirements.
I'm sure I'm not the first one to say this here, but I don't have a lot of sympathy for most of these people. Anybody with their eyes open knows Republicans have had it as their chief goal to dismantle government services and regulatory agencies. The honchos in big business and big finance see opportunity there. Opportunity to evade regulation by eliminating regulators and opportunity to provide the services government once performed. Republicans see these private operators as a new source of campaign cash. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out.
The white working class who supported Republicans because they wanted to spite black and brown people, and bought into all the race and religion baiting deserve what they're getting. It's almost Darwinist.
10
This horror story (tax cuts leading to severe cuts in public services, budget shortfalls) is often repeated. Don't the voters ever learn? At this point, I have to question the intellect and quality of the the American voting public. In a democracy people get the leaders they deserve.
8
Well, we're just headed back to where we were in the last century. The corporations have been working at this for decades and are succeeding. With the advent of Citizen's United they now have the perfect way to make their case through misleading and dishonest paid advertising. With the privatization (that is, for profit-ization) of services previously provided by governments we will all be beholding to the "company store". Studies have show repeatedly that services become more expensive and/or employees get paid less when they are privatized.
"You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store" - Merle Travis (1946)
Are we making progress yet?
13
"Are we making progress yet?"
No.... but we sure are "winning"!
2
And underpaying public employees also robs the communities in which they live. They have less disposable income with which to support local businesses and pay taxes, in some cases they wind up needing food stamps or pantries to feed their families.
8
Yes, jbi, but remember, two weeks ago Trump signed in the directive that Paul Ryan had been working for for his entire career....that any person receiving any help from the "safety net" had to WORK for whatever they received. His life's work now completed, Ryan announced the next day that he would not be running for re-election. Now, note that that requirement only applies to the poor or the "working poor"..... not to the wealthy who receive subsidies, are ruled exempt from taxes or can hide their "assistance" in the form of a "tax cut".
It will not be an "accident" that they wind up on food stamps: That is the whole point of the game.
6
The local food pantry in my town has expanded over 40% this past year.
Telling times of shortage.
5
Some civil servants are over paid, some are not. I don't know how many fall into each category but almost all of us have experience being "served" by some in each category. It is my experience that state and local civil service jobs tend to have a number of features;
- Low stated compensation rates. ( High ones look bad in the newspaper ).
- Substantially above market differed compensation features ( the costs of this deferred comp shows up long after the pol who granted it in a negotiation is gone ).
- Very low accountability ( rules like tenure for teachers designed to protect workers from being fired for political reasons end up making them unaccountable ).
If we want better more effective public service we should pay public servants fairly, make what they are paid transparent to tax payers and have management that promotes accountability not simply keeping your head down and counting the days. Some communities do these things but many do not. You can change things by voting at the ballot box ( to change were you live ) or with your feet ( to someplace that does it right ).
4
The average high school teacher salary in our town is nearly 6-figures so I'm not sure we can generalize that teacher salaries nationwide are suffering, or that public servants are underpaid nationwide. It would be helpful to see data by state, highs and lows, etc. and some historical trend data at a more granular level.
Also, the shift to digital and citizen self-service has eliminated the need for data entry people, and that's just as true of the private sector.
9
Pay attention to
" transferring jobs to companies that have reduced salaries"
Then realize that eople who make less, pay less taxes. And less taxes mean lower salaries for public employees. How do I know ? After being paid less, my school taxes are still climbing every year.
So, it's not meanness. After the destruction of manufacturing unions, the same misery, delayed, is spreading to public unions.
Real wage levels have fallen for the lower middle class for two decades, by moving better paying US jobs to countries with people willing to work for less, and importing immigrants willing to work for less.
4
Wait, my property taxes go up regardless of income.
2
The public sector exists to provide service at cost, the private sector exists to produce service at cost plus profit. While both need to be monitored and regulated for the public good, it is obvious that, due to the profit motive, privatization of public services will always result in less service at higher cost. It amazes me that corrupt politicians are so often able to convince people that the opposite is true.
6
Wow, not a single mention of a solution -- the institutions called labor unions! How remarkable. What else isn't mentioned? Not a word about the obscene profiteers making the billions from privatization. Not a word about the failure of the fake saint, B. Obama , even to bother to give a speech in favor of recalling the most notorious of the anti-union governors. In short reporters Cohen & Gebeloff are content to describe the problem, but refuse to provide a word about what needs to be done. Of course the photos were swell, but high production value photography is not enough. Mission accomplished.
6
Is the first step to start being a corrupt society, the lack of attention to a public servant is how most of the bad things start. believe me I know about it.
2
I am certain that the same cannot be said about the so-called "public servants" in the Washington, DC, living high on the hog at tax payers expense! Drain the swamp!
7
You mean like Steve Mnuchin and Donald Trump with his "weekly" taxpayer funded trips to Mara Lago? Yep, your right about the swamp, Trump and his cronies are in it up to their neck.
I recommend that we refund this person's money and allow him not to receive any public services.
Drain the swamp?
Isn’t that what Trump is supposed to be doing?
The low pay, lack of benefits and general scorn for public employees is the fulfillment of Reaganomics. An entire generation of US citizens have grown up and absorbed the idea that government, and the services government provides, is their enemy.
Why would a citizen want competent services, with quality controls, from public employees when a private contractor can provide the service at twice the cost and 50% of the quality?
Unless Reaganomics is fully rejected the downward spiral of cutting essential services to citizens will continue.
Hello, Democratic party, are you there? Are you hearing this?
8
This is essential reporting but why is there no mention of public sector unions and their evisceration through so-called "right-to-work" laws in more than half of states, including Oklahoma? These awful laws are designed to destroy the unions that ensure good wages and benefits for public sector workers, and they disproportionately harm people of color, who comprise a larger share of the civilian government workforce. There is a direct relationship between shrinking union density and declining wage growth and middle-class share of income, which is exactly why conservative lawmakers and the private sector work to restrict labor rights through "right-to-work" legislation.
4
These people should move to Massachusetts, where cops can make $200,000 - $300,000 a year.
12
You're not kidding. It's ridiculous. The Fire Depts. are just as highly paid.
They like to keep these jobs for family members too. Insane amount of 'insider' perks too. Like the State Police paying themselves outrageous sums of overtime pay without actually ever doing it. And as usual the State of MA hires private, outside consultants or agents to make judgement. The Governor and others don't care to make this call nor are they doing their jobs. Can't criticize the cops here, ever. They stole money from the taxpayers and will not spend a day in jail.
4
Conservatives love a teacher when their shielding a child from a crazed gunman and getting shot in the process (Newtown). They adore educators when the protect children from a falling wall during a tornado in Oklahoma. But let those same teachers ask for reasonable pay or job security. and they're a bunch of Snowflakes and useless, crazy union punks.
12
Funny. Nobody ever envied or attacked my pension back when everyone I went to college with was making three or four times my salary.
16
Paul in California and sob in Boston: You beat me to the punch! I used to feel for the plight of labor ... that was until I worked for local and state government (not as a union employee). The problem with stories like this is that all public service jobs are lumped together. At the local level in places like CA and MA (where I live), civilian labor and uniformed (police and fire) operate in alternate universes. MA has police and firemen making over $400K a year, with all of the benefits described for CA. Moreover, they take an incredibly dismissive attitude toward those taxpayers who feed them at the trough.
My first job out of college was unionized, with a professional - technical union. While I benefited from collective bargaining, the union always made it quite clear that they would serve in my interests ... up to a point. And, there were clear lines drawn between what we could grieve and what we couldn't. Those lines seem completely absent in MA, where everything public service unions feel is a slight is subject to legal action. I really wish the non-politically connected would wake up and smell the proverbial coffee. There is seemingly no accountability for tax expenditures where public safety is concerned.
8
Maybe we need a new "Labor Party"?
7
Republicans have claimed for decades that the public sector is throwing good money after bad. Then they interfere and defund and work the system to make their prophecy self-fulfill.
It's all capital versus labor in the end and one of the biggest problems we face is that American labor believes that it is ownership on principle, so they vote for their own defeats. A healthy country needs a balance and the pendulum has swung waaay far to the right.
Currently the question is whether we get a correction towards balance, or let the pendulum break off and watch the whole noble experiment evaporate.
2
The likes of Grover Norquist, the Koch Brothers and Paul Ryan have hollowed out our country.
12
Like many issues, a major factor in the decline of public education particularly in the south is the factor of race/culture. There are many people who don't want their children to go to public schools because the public schools are intergrated. Heaven forbid that little "Johnnie" or "Susie" meet a black student or come in contact with a Hispanic kid. Many of the private schools, church schools, and charter schools in the south would not exist if the public schools were not intergrated. People in the south love to talk religion but the major motivation, I believe, is race. The public schools have to take all the children in the city/county which they serve.
Some people refer to public schools as "government" schools which is another dig since they think that anything the government does has to be bad.
Much of the hate for the government and the federal government in particular is because the government is supposed to serve and hire everyone equally regardless of race. Much of the dislike for the ACA (Obamacare) is because many white people mistakenly thought that it was something concocted by President Obama to give goodies to black people.
Somebody campaigned into the White House on the message that public service is a swamp dweller's calling.......
4
The 2017 Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System actuarial valuation report indicates that the average pay of its 88,000 teachers to be $46,878.
Why did the writers of this article choose to cherry pick an Oklahoma teacher, one making $28,000 in "adjusted gross income" when the average pay for a person 17 years in teaching in Oklahoma is $53,696?
See Table 17 for the details.
https://www.ok.gov/TRS/documents/TRS%20Actuarial%20Report-2017.pdf
2
Average teacher salary includes those in school administration as well as classroom teachers. Median salary, rather than average salary, would provide a much clearer picture. Just as college professors do not command the multi-million dollar salaries of football and basketball coaches, so it is in public schools.
6
The Great Dumbing Down of America has been very effective. Civics is no longer taught in public schools. The Divide and Conquer policies of the republicans is working very well for the 1%ers. It's shame that so many Americans simply don't understand how voting for republicans over the past 40 years has destroyed the fabric of successful American communities. Now we have successful American mansions for the wealthy while the rest of us have our quality of life degraded. But at least you got your tax cut, right?
6
I think fondly of the dedicated public servants who have politely assisted me throughout the years. Then I remember that for every pleasant government employee, there have been three who obstructed me through incompetence, laziness, and vindictiveness.
5
This is old news. Not that it would have prevented anything, but where were you on this story 15 years ago?
2
As a life-long public 'servant' - one who worked an average of 10 hours a day, paid for 7.5, forced to pay out of pocket and later reimbursed for nearly all supplies, then have that reimbursement reported every year as INCOME by the city, (aaarghhh!) I had the rug pulled out from under me when the promised college-loan forgiveness program simply disappeared or whatever happened to it. I and my colleagues agreed to a hike in our health insurance premiums, deductibles and co-pays in order to save the jobs of 100 others.
One year, while on a required trip for a specialized training, our boss decided we could choose a fancier restaurant for our last night's meal. We had been working 12 hour days while on this trip, and we hadn't used much of our allotted stipend for meals. When the city saw the specific name of the restaurant when we returned home, we were hauled in front of the school committee for a public shaming.
God forbid we - as lowly public employees - EVER get a meal better than a pizza or sandwich. The fact that the rest of our meals had been along the lines of yogurt and apples or peanut butter crackers from a vending machine didn't matter. The PUBLIC sentiment was that we had abused THEM by acting as if we were as good as they.
3
America you get what you vote for.
Democracy is not a given, it requires investment from all its citizens. Or things like that happen.
5
Where did all the money to pay our civil servants go? It's not all going to pensions. Rather, it's the reduced tax revenue from corporations, especially oil and gas production, that's creating huge budget shortfalls and resulting in low salaries and loss of jobs.
10
The article fails to mention the detrimental impact of labor unions on public employment. Prior to the 1970s it was rare that public sector employees were union represented. That implicit understanding was shattered by Jerry Brown in the 1970s when he signed a law allowing collective bargaining of public service employees. Soon thereafter other liberal politicians across the nation followed suit. What that caused was the labor unions essentially sitting on both sides of the bargaining table. Liberal politicians pandering for union member votes were exceedingly generous with wage and benefit concessions. After all, it wasn't their money they were giving away and they would be out of office when the financial impact of their unwarranted largesse was felt. So now it's time to pay the piper for all those extravagant benefits and the local governments don't have the money. Is it any wonder that public sector employment is shrinking?
4
In the last 30 yrs., union representation in America has shrunk from 25% to less than 8% today so your claim that unions are had and still have excessive benefits and wages is nonsense.
9
Deus, You got that wrong. Indeed, overall unionization unionization has shrunk to about 8% of overall employment, but today 34% of public sector employees are union represented compared to 6.5% in the private sector. Public sector unionization grew from 4m in 1956 to 17m in 2009. In terms of absolute numbers there are more union members in the public sector than in the private sector. While unionization was shrinking in the private sector because of business reasons it was growing at algebraic rates in the public sector. Unionization grew in the public sector because by and large unions did not have to mount organization drives, they simply asked for representation and pandering politicians allowed it to happen.
1
Sorry, I'm union, but got a huge pay cut and I'm not allowed to strike. It doesn't seem to help most of us very much. We can only get paid for 7 hours of work a day even if we work 12.
The trillion dollar stimulus that was supposed to go to "shovel ready projects" went instead to public sector workers. At a time when there was carnage in the private sector, public sector jobs were safe and secure, along with cushy pensions that most workers in the private sector no longer have. Remember the threats that thousands upon thousands of federal workers would be laid off as the result of the sequester? It never happened. You can't blame taxpayers for feeling burned by all this bait and switch. Having said that, I am all for good classroom teachers getting raises and treated as the professionals they are. Make it easier to fire the bad teachers. Ditch the administrative overhead ("assistant superintendents for attendance"--really?)
2
“I asked my brother, ‘How do you feel about this pay raise?’” Ms. Moore recalled. “He said: ‘I want you to have it. You deserve it. But we don’t feel like we should pay for it.’”
“Well,” she said, “who do you want to pay for it?”
Typical problem with American voters. They want the services, but they don't want to pay any taxes. Critical thinking skills have been hammered by the GOP mantra that St Ronnie started where he demonized the government.
9
It isn't just public servants losing their foothold into the middle class. I run a small bed and breakfast with a solidly middle class clientele. I haven't raised rates in many years but I see more and more people anxious about what a room costs when they phone me. I think this is part of what is driving so many people to airbnb.
I've always felt that my little business was like a canary in the coal mine for the middle class.
7
Our current middle class, family of four, can hardly afford airline tickets or gas to drive on vacation anymore. Used to be a two week paid vacation that was when families would go to Disney or drive cross country. Not anymore.
We are a two tiered society. Either you have a maid or you are a maid, very little in between. Also known as the Brazilification of the U.S.
7
Erode the public's confidence in government, defund, then privatize. You voted for the people that are doing this, America.
12
You left out "Step One", Rob.
Step One is, First - get the Public to build it, THEN you "privatize" it at pennies on the dollar, selling it to a buddy who's the only person who knows it has gone up for sale.
And, what's the opposite of "privatization"?
"Nationalization".
Odd how we never hear that word.....
3
In some ways, I wish we could get rid of the word "nationalist" altogether, because it sure doesn't have any descriptive power and just enables those who are so inclined to dismiss an argument without engaging with it.
I have never understood why private sector workers in this country begrudge public sector workers their benefits instead of demanding those benefits for themselves. You get what you vote for, I guess.
19
Public servants are serving citizens who are also struggling from paycheck to paycheck. The high wages of the 1980's and 1990's are gone. When the entire community is paid less than $40,000 per year, they aren't going to tax themselves to pay government employees twice that amount. The new normal is low wages, and the citizens don't even get health insurance benefits or pension benefits. So there's that......
2
A foundation need is to improve respect among classes in US society. We can make a good stroke in the effort to do so by shifting the look, the perception of individually held value in commercial market, government sector and interpersonal relationships.
A way to improve the look of the relationships is to stop referring to government employees ... from the president to lawmakers to government office clerks to a sweeper at a government office as "public servants."
They aren’t conscripts. They aren't servants. They are employees. They have chosen to work in a particular position. They are paid a wage determined by market forces.
To term government employees "servants" is to simultaneously ennoble the position and denigrate the person.
Those employees are NOT serving or in lowly service positions. They are employed for wages.
Treat them with respect due an employee.
Words count.
Someday this country will wake up and realize the workers need to stand together.
12
I'll hold my breath.
2
Voters have been calling for lowering taxes for decades. The TEA Party was started by this (Taxed Enough Already). But then people want to know why the is not enough money for inferstructure. Wages in America have been going down for the working class for more than 20 years. Politicians fight not to have a $15 minium wage. There was time when you saw a person in a minium wage job it was a 17, 18, 19 year old. Today we have Mothers and Fathers in those jobs. If you are dirt poor you may quaify for some govenment programs most others need two jobs just to survive. There was a time a family income of $100 thousand was a nice cushion income. Today in Tri State area if you are a family of four and have an houshold income of $100k you are just getiing by barely. People work hard whether you are a C.E.O. or a store cashier the price of milk is the same.
2
Pay & productivity over time...
1948 - 1973...Productivity + 97% and Hourly wages +93%
1973 - 2016...Productivity + 74% and hourly pay +12%
https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/
So, productivity has inured to the owners of capital and not labor which has contributed to a growing income gap. Then compound that with taxes code that favor large corporations and the very wealthy through various loopholes and the wealth maldistribution is even more pronounced.
"The best survey data show that the share of wealth held by the top 1 percent rose from just under 30 percent in 1989 to nearly 49 percent in 2016, while the share held by the bottom 90 percent fell from just over 33 percent to less than 23 percent over the same period".
https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/a-guide-to-statisti...
So:
Keep cutting taxes
Allocate disproportionate funds to defense and waging war ($700 billion)
Blocking public option or national health care
Foment disdain of public workers
All resulting is a self created crisis that implies that public servants are overpaid and voila...this article and a shrinking middle class...
The concentration of wealth exceeds levels during the gilded age from almost 100 years ago and its no wonder that the US suffers from low aggregate demand.
8
The US is headed for some terrible reckoning, in that our capitalist, consumer-based economy requires people to spend money on disposable and durable goods in order to keep the economy healthy and growing. If people can't earn a living wage, or are paying 50% of their income on housing/rent there is an imbalance there that isn't benefiting citizens. In order for the current economic structure to function in the US we must have a middle class. But the GOP's relentless drive to concentrate wealth at the top seems completely counterintuitive to the way a consumer economy works. We've seen the results of gross economic imbalance before in 1789 and 1917 to just name two examples, and it didn't end well then.
12
You can thank the public sector unions who have bankrupted many states for decades. Hopefully the Supreme Court will finally put an end to forced union contributions this summer.
2
No, you can thank the political class and the 1%. Your blame is misplaced.
7
FYI, in states where so-called "right to work" legislation has been implemented, wages are stagnating and/or being driven down in all sectors of the economy in those states. In the last 30 yrs., union membership has declined from over 25% to less than 8% now. It seems you have consumed an inordinate amount of Republican "Kool Aid".
4
For too many years, far too many Americans have continued to buy into the Republican ongoing mantra that "government, taxes and regulation are evil". Well, now that they have most of the power in their hands at most levels of government, the results are now in for everyone who has some critical thinking skills to see "in all its glory". Collapsing educational and healthcare systems along with a third world infrastructure that requires TRILLIONS for just repairs, let alone, improvements. In their constant "divide and conquer" approach to governing, many states Republican governments have done a pretty effective job of demonizing unions especially teachers and public servants at the expense of everyone else. So-called "right to work" legislation has made it worse by stagnating and in many cases driving down wages that were previously fought for by members of various public servant unions.
The economy may be rolling along at the moment, however, all one has to do is look at what is happening with teachers and grossly underfunded schools in many states and when you have more and more people with not enough educational opportunities and teachers leaving the profession, at some point that economy will no longer be competitive, it is inevitable.
When are you finally going to learn America? There is no free ride.
10
I am not holding my breath awaiting word from a candidate for a state legislature, Congress or Governor advocating strengthening the public sector. Aside from fire fighters, the military and some teachers (but not those in unions), our politicians reflect the popular attitude that anyone who works in a government job is a hack, an overpaid bureaucrat or a slacker with no ability. By the way, this is a bipartisan view; can anyone recall a Democratic Party candidate taking up the plight of public sector workers?
The politicians may have a legitimate point. After all, who do we have running for most offices, which pay handsomely and have gold-plated health care and retirement plans? Not, in any way, the best and the brightest among us.
3
A 30+ year self-spiting drumbeat. Unsurprisingly, there are flippant comments about the quality and qualifications of these workers, apparently blind to what should be a shared goal to have the best and brightest among us in these jobs (civil engineers, teachers, etc. - or maybe you think egregious judgement from some in law enforcement simply come from the pressures of the job?
We need good and smart and capable people in these essential roles, otherwise we are just paying lip service. Civic essentials and pride actually used to be the most uniting thing in America. Now it sits and rots. On purpose.
6
federal employees are paid quite well. in many states, teachers are paid very well . here in California, there are some teachers that get to stay on payroll and don't even have to work! the new york times makes it seem like it's a nationwide crisis, when in fact the problem lies in a few of our rural states.
8
So many clichés in this comment. Apparently the professional journalists who did this real research do not agree with your clichés.
2
The middle class do not need public services or jobs in that sector - they only need to pay taxes to pay off the unfunded tax breaks given to the 1% and the military/industrial complex (corporate welfare state). Other than that the middle class has no useful function.
6
And not a word, not a single word here about campaign finance in the story or the comments!
The article and the comments all speak truthfully about the small and big picture view. We have some political and structural problems occurring reflected in the economic circumstances detailed above. But Congress and the legislatures hold the purse strings. And truthfully, both parties are bought and paid for by campaign financing (abuse). It used to be an important topic, and I believe still the most important. No politician wants to deliberately impoverish their constituents. They are ordered to do so. And since President Reagan, campaign money has been given the highest standard of living of any country or political party. BOTH raise billions of dollars in the election cycle and not one penny for the middle class. If we continue to blame personalities, the funding mechanism is working well and we are living with a one-party - one agenda government. The changes are simply a result of the floodgates opening so almost everyone is voting against their interests. We usually have no choice.
I've a friend who just retired from a fire dept. in a major West coast city at age 55 with full on benefits and pension that will allow he and his family to travel around the world for a couple of years without financial worry. I am jealous.
In Massachusetts it is similar, with many retiring early from Police and Fire Depts. then going to live in beach communities with similar others in Florida.
The 10 highest paid municipal workers of my small town are all either Fire or Police, making well into 6 figures. I don't think this is going to continue or is it fiscally prudent. Receiving outrageously high pensions will soon be a thing of the past. It is draining annual town spending costs. Public education is usually the first to get hit.
12
So because of jealousy you want to kill the middle class? Nice...
2
"Police and Fire Depts. ? Regardless of their income, you seem to have forgotten that the people in these professions put their "lives on the line" on a daily basis. Also, unlike most other professions, because of the physical dexterity required in their jobs and assuming they were lucky enough to not suffer any previous injury during their careers, how effective do you honestly think a firefighter or police offer would be at age 65 or older?
STOP buying into the Republican scam that "government, taxes and regulation are evil". There is a price to pay for everything. If you don't want to pay more taxes then don't expect quality government services and quality people to provide them.
1
Making 75,000 plus in an annual pension? Yes, I am jealous.
I'm certain that jealousy is 'killing the middle class'-not really.
It's greed.
1
Single mom, 2 jobs, position of trust at a top university.masters degree from the Ivy League in a business field.performance reviews qualified me for top of the raise pool,regularly.one year equal to 10 cents an hour.the next year 30 cents an hour. a freeze.this is the state capitol,where the legislature meets and the governor has his office.this city has made headlines for real estate growth and increasing cost of living. Simple math: if state employees get 1% raises and inflation on housing costs is well into double digits, state employees can't live here ,and it is not invisible to the legislators we as taxpayers are paying.forget politics, forget conscience, do the math. one more shoe drops and I need food stamps
7
People think that public servants do not deserve to be paid a decent wage until they require a public service. Who is going to come when your house is on fire? Who will educate your children? Who removes your garbage, plows your roads, and fixes your streets? All of the focus is on mental health and opioid treatment, but no one wants to discuss the lack of pay for counseling professionals. You cannot expect someone to earn a master's degree and spend unpaid time interning to make $12/hr working in an extremely stressful field. Think about who you want working in these positions and then tell me if they deserve to be paid a living wage.
There also seems to be quite a few misconceptions about public service salaries and pensions. Yes, certain people can retire after twenty years w/ a generous pension like police officers or firefighters. These are people operate under "hazardous duty" pay. They also pay more into their retirement/pensions. Once again, ask yourself who would be willing to do these jobs for less pay. Teachers also pay into their pensions, and the amount we receive is based on years of service and age. You simply cannot retire with a full pension after 20 years.
12
I spent 23 years as a firefighter these tax cutting, anti-government types that have run amok since Reagan, have made public safety jobs undesirable, recently Houston and Dallas pensions have had severe restructuring. Without a good pension, being a firefighter is not worth it given the toll on your body. I sense with the teacher revolts in red states and the failure of the Kansas experiment, we are on the cups of putting Reaganomics in the ground right next to St. Ronnie
8
With all due respects, being a hod carrier or a garbage collector are hard on the body also.
3
I consider myself a liberal, spent 6 years working for the federal government, and was appalled. If my group had been in private industry, there would have been 5-10 employees. Our group had 100, with 5 levels of management between myself and just the group director. Most of these folks had nothing to do, took sick leave every week, and nobody was ever fired no matter how outlandish their transgressions. Everyone was making well into six figures, much more than they would have earned in private industry, and showed up only to await their pensions. I appreciate a lot of government workers have difficult jobs and work hard to perform vital services, but to think there's no room for massive reduction in some areas is naive, most of the folks I worked with were the ultimate Welfare Queens.
12
All good points. There IS a lot of waste in government and you cite a good example. Because localities work from a common budget, waste in any area affects other areas. That’s why here in CA, with the sixth largest economy in the world, we have, overall, terrible public schools.
All sides need to be considered to solve the problem noted in this article. It’s easy for a governor to make sweeping budget cuts while at the same time cutting taxes. Unfortunately, the localities have to live with the consequences.
3
Everyone should have secure, adequate health care and retirement benefits, affordable housing, and a living wage. In a country that can afford these things but doesn't have them, the poor and the barely middle class fight each other for scraps while the 1%, and especially the .01%, get more and more obscenely rich.
8
I agree with the sentiment of your comment Marianne. Where I differ is that people should have the ability to find work that allows them to live a middle class life, with the attendant benefits you cite.
Individuals, those who are able, need to step up though and work for these things. I don’t think it’s government’s responsibility to guarantee all these things. But government should guarantee that everyone who is able has a chance to live a good life if they apply themselves.
For the truly needy, it is also government’s job (and supported by those of us who can work through taxes) to provide for these people. Great societies are measured in large part by how they care for “the least amongst us”. And the rest of us have a moral obligation to help as well.
Clearly we’re failing on this last point. Being able to work shouldn’t mean having to work two jobs to make ends meet, as some of the people in this article are forced to do. That this is a reality is unconscionable, and a failing of government.
4
Disgraceful. These are critically important jobs. Their lack of monetary support indicates our shallow values. We pay lip service to the education of children and care of the needy while cutting taxes on the top percents that do not need more, feeding their greed. Taxes are a critical part of the equation and the cuts have left dangerous infrastructure unattended, as well. The concept of "We the People" seems lost.
9
An article I completely agree with. Which is rare in these McCarthyist Russia is to blame for everything, inc European racism and Americans voting for Trump as though Hillary was the 'perfect candidate' and as though endless war mongering and Russia phobia are good Democrat values even if these new attitudes are just GOP lite with PC camouflage as the present depressing example of 'Blue Dog' Governor Cuomo.
As others have pointed out the rot here started under 'saint' 'trickle down' Reagan and continued with the 'changing welfare as we know it', NAFTA, 'superpredator' Clinton DNC regime just as in England we had Tony Blair making permanent, the same wrecking of the status of Unions and workers and Government workers.
Which is why we need a true progressive candidate like Sanders who talks to the needs of the non elite and is not crazy for more international aggression and pointless illegal missile strikes on sovereign nations that have NOT attacked us. The wealth gap increases as democracy rots!
4
Your headline is misleading, because it indicates that all public servants are disappearing from the middle class, when the article itself in fact refers to local and state public servants. Federal employees are all too well paid and enjoy kinds benefits and job security that most of us mere mortals can only dream of, not matter how poorly (and unethically) they perform. So please fix your headline so that it's clear that you're referring specifically to local and state employees (and even here, you're referring to very specific segments, because some are quite well paid).
5
As a teacher I always chuckle when a parent outlines the horrors of a 20 child birthday party that lasts 2 hours one day a year. Our party is 190 days or more a year.......
7
The critical thinking demonstrated in the comments to this piece are encouraging. The readers are parsing the article and mostly contributing good comments to the discussion.
4
I'm 70 and you're about 40 years too late on this article.
40 years ago this country, in the midst of shipping all of their factory work overseas, became a "Temp Country".
Everything became "temporary"..... until it became permanent.
Warnings were howled about the hollowing out of this country.... and we "Howlers" were called pointy-heads who didn't have a clue.
Well, we did.
And now this country has exactly what the John Birch Koch Bros want, and the Sinclairs and the Mercers....
Sorry, America, but you chose.
And you chose wrong every time. What were the odds on that?
Given "odds" you should have been right at least half of the time, but that's not how "politics" works.
Sorry, but your pensions are going fast... and that "Temp" generation never got their foot in anyways and the rest were "over-promised".
Imagine that.
Now we are down to the only two facts that matter:
1) The Military budget is up to almost a trillion a year, $756.9 billion, and,
2) we are only 13.7 % of the world economy according to the IMF.
Perhaps those younger than me have never heard of "osteoporosis"?
It's where your bones hollow out from the loss of calcium, become honey-combed, no longer strong enough to bear one's weight and easily shattered if one falls.
This nation is suffering from osteoporosis.
We are one bad choice from shattering a hip... and, given our medical options, there will be no recovery....
And, to think.... all of this was "chosen"....
I no longer howl.
I weep.
15
Time to bring back and support union representation. Time to tax the rich. Time for equality under the law. Time to stop stupidity and penalize propagandist. The nation cannot run itself to profit a few to the detriment of 99% of Americans.
10
Go to any store like Target, Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, Lowes and Home Depot, to name a few, and look at the labels where nine out of ten products, from power tools to plumbing fixtures to vacuum cleaners, toys to nuts and bolts will read Made in China. Cellphones, laptops, PC's, TV's, DVDs, all made in a Communist China. Even seafood is now being imported from China.
When these products were manufactured in the US by jobs Americans would do, they used to generate some tax revenue for local and state governments which paid for what used to be middle class jobs, police, teachers, firemen and other public servants. It appears the only public servants not impacted by the loss of jobs to automation or outsourcing to China are those who call themselves members of Congress. These members of Congress are the same people collecting donations from companies that shuttered factories and laid off workers by the hundreds of thousands.
These public servants in Congress get the most generous taxpayer funded salaries, expense accounts, health benefits and retirement plans that are the envy of some privately owned companies.
It is time the American people reevaluate either the necessity of term limits and or the generous taxpayer funded compensation members of Congress receive for their public service. Enough is enough.
12
ed. 'have lost' or 'long ago lost'
And then there is the hollowing out of middle class public employees in Wisconsin, dutifully delivered to the billionaire Koch Brothers by their sycophantic, aspirational governor, the extremist ideologue Walker.
8
Lost credibility in this article early when author stated teaching and nursing jobs require no college education, which is a complete fallacy. Difficult to put confidence in any statistics in this article when background work is sloppy.
2
Please quote the offending passage. I think you seriously misread this article.
1
It amazes how workers in the US are pitted against one another. Instead of uniting and demanding for health insurance, vacation time, sick time, and pensions - workers attack public servants. Go after US Congress but not the daily workers who teach your children, pick up the trash, and keep your streets safe at night. When are American workers going to realize that we are all in this together?
398
Greed lurks in most humans' hearts
2
Lordy, so true!!!
1
The GOP counts on this distraction. When people talk about Republican voters choosing candidates that are against their own interests—remember that they often choose their Congressional leaders based on ideology. They’d rather starve and have inadequate healthcare than share the wealth with people of color, LGBTQ folks, etc.
5
My father was a state employee for 33 years. My mother worked for a municipality for 14 years.
My dad always said that no one wants to pay taxes, but complain because "they" won't come and fix the pothole down the street.
2
My mother's public pension after 13 years in a library job was about $350 a month.
To pay the increased bills you tax the rich. I really don’t mind paying property taxes to fund first class public schools, and, coming from California, I know the millions of jobs California’s public universities fought to the state.
Social capital is real, and the Republicans are destroying it by the trillions.
How can rich Republicans in places like Kansas and Oklahoma look themselves in the mirror?
When are poor Republicans going to wise up and see that public education, environmental protection, scientific leadership and well-funded healthcare are their children’s future, and there’s more to life than owning semi-automatic weapons, stopping legal immigration, giving nonviolent people long prison terms, and telling other people how to live their completely law-abiding personal lives?
7
Pay is relative. Here is lower New York State, many of our public sector employees are very well paid. I have a relative who makes $165K as the principal of a small alternative high school. I don't even thinks he likes his job. A childhood friend makes $175K working for the police department in the town he lives in. There aren't many other professions where someone with an associate degree would do better. However, the situation in the american south is absurd. Those workers deserve better.
6
Another very important way we are allowing infrastructure to decline.
3
Wisconsin law enforcement agencies are having a terrible time recruiting new officers. Agencies that used to attract hundreds of applicants are lucky to get a dozen, and most of them are unsuitable. Good candidates can find jobs in the private sector and not have to work nights, weekends, and holidays, and under better working conditions.
3
The long term plan of Republicans is working then. We Democrats can't see the forest thru the trees sometimes. We think when we elected Barack Obama that the war has been won but for the GOP it was just a bump in the long game they're playing. You lose the presidency but you keep, by defying the constitution, the Supreme Court. They are busy right now packing all the courts in the land with men and women who think like they do. Why do you think they attack teachers unions all the time? It is not a coincidence that the teacher walkouts across the country are all ruled by Republicans. Why would they fund public teachers and schools if they fundamentally don't believe they should exist?
We have been sleep walking while they've been very busy every day just chipping away, chipping away.....
6
I have yet to see what BHO did for the middle class or public workers. As far as the Democratic Party goes, their obsession seems to be illegal aliens, not tax payers or citizens.
1
Meanwhile, the Democrats want to promote open borders and allow as many immigrants into the country as they can. The Republicans (Trump notwithstanding) also want more immigrants, but feel the need to appear anti-immigrant to please their base. It's all about supply and demand, folks. More workers looking for jobs means lower pay and benefits. Less workers means higher pay and benefits (though the Fed stands ready to see that as inflation and put the kibosh on it to aid the powers that be). The 1% are happy as clams with the status quo. Don't expect government to come to the rescue -- their masters won't allow it.
9
Well said. There is no one speaking for regular Americans, no matter their race or ethnicity.
3
Civil service jobs on balance when all benefits are worked in - pay orders of magnitude better than private sector on average -- the reason is simple -
there is no one guarding the taxpayer - let the pay and benefits come out of the pockets of those so 'compassionate' legislators and bureaucrats and we'd see some fair negotiations
people in civil service complain of having to work 2 jobs; there are few in private sector who aren't working so many hours in their one job that they could possibly work another job
i was 'retired' - computer field with 60 hour work weeks - had to go back and am now working at post office to supplement SS which is now taxed)
its a job but hearing about all my fellow postal workers getting ready to retire in their 50's or long timers in their early 60's with hundreds of hours of accumulated sick leave and making about as much as most were making in the cutthroat computer field leaves me wondeirng
teachers demanding cost of living raises (what the heck is that?)
the only people i know who retire apart from elite rare, really successful businessman, are the doctors, lawyers and the civil servants -
when 1 out of 2 babies born are paid for with welfare -someone has to cover the cost - that is the average private sector worker
these are the people referred to by the liberals as the deplorables
5
Did it ever occur to you that everyone is entitled to decent pay and benefits?
Just because you are lucky, doesn't mean others are. The 1% is making everyone cogs in its machine; some of us are learning not to play along w/them. If your private benefits are unsatisfactory, you can quit and take a public sector job. Everyone's ox is being gored these days; you aren't alone. Pitting public workers against private sector workers is just another tool the 1% uses to divide us. We are all working peons.
4
I agree with you but facts are what remain when you stop believing.
U can’t have half the population having babies courtesy of welfare and all the attendant costs (education, medical, insurance, food) born by those in the private sector.
Rich may have oodles of paper money but it’s tied up in stocks
What is really chewing up everyone’s share of the pie are the huge and ever growing welfare class
Let those who are poor have kids in the same numbers that those who have to pay for their kids.
Your point is well taken but numbers are the reality.
If they aren’t paying taxes for their kids education those in the private sector are doubly whammied
Sorry, I'm a public sector worker for decades, have $34,000 after taxes, a huge pay cut and soaring property taxes.
I spent the last 11 years of my career working for the state in California in the largest university system in the nation. In those years I have never so much waste, lack of accountability with our tax dollars and mind numbing boring jobs with little to no chance of advancement. After a one year probationary period you are given permanent status where the above gets even worse and it's nearly impossible to fire shoddy workers.
Until accountability and efficiency is built into the culture I am not one to vote for more money to government workers. There is never enough money but in reality there's plenty of it if they used it wisely.
9
my experience mirrors your's exactly. Folks were shocked when I left such an easy do-nothing job, but I needed to use my brain before I became like the rest of them
1
Just what do you expect when one of the nation's most "popular" Presidents described government as "the problem"? And the voters bought it and have handed statehouses around the country to people who also thought there was nothing honorable or worthwhile about working for the government.
Teachers, firefighters, police officers, librarians ... these used to be respected jobs and therefore people. No longer. All Americans respect now is money, money, money. A pox on our house. Wait, we've already got one, and it's in the Oval Office.
5
Adjusted gross income can have gross disparity based on deductions. Out of my compensation come mortgage interest, land taxes, income taxes for $40k+ deductions leaving me about $30k adjusted gross income. Then about 40 years ago I took control. Divorced my out of control spender, paid off all the credit cards, and have never bought anything except my house on credit since. Any windfall monies are invested, maxed out my retirement accounts, save half of any raise, etc. It is discipline that lets you over come the adversity. In all the pictures save one you can point out two to four indicators of lack of discipline. At 10 years of age my single telephone operator mother gave me 100 shares of stock. Even then we lived under our means.
2
You are mixing up taxable income with AGI.
AGI is income after adjustments but before deductions. Taxable income is AGI after deductions.
2
According to the most recent "best quality of life" rankings of the US News and World Report the old canard about the United States being the "best country to live in on Earth" is no longer true. It's not even close. The US is #17 out of the 80 listed - https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/quality-of-life-full-list.
What accounts for this? If you look at the total wealth of a country and how it is divided up among its resident population you can get some powerful clues. For the US it's 93 trillion dollars divided by 241 million adults. That works out to about $389,000 per adult. The median wealth per adult, however, is just under $56,000. That's a seven to one ratio. What happened to the other $333,000? What accounts for the disparity? It's the skewed wealth accumulation at the top end.
The rich have gotten ultra richer and (as this article documents) the middle class (not to mention the poor) have either stagnated or gotten poorer.
These numbers were compiled by Credit Suisse not some leftwing think tank - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_per_adult.
Canada, our northern neighbor, is listed as #1 in quality of life. There the figures are $259,000 and $91,000. The aggregate wealth per adult is less than the US but the share out is entirely different. The ratio is under 3 to 1.
Australia is #4. There the numbers are $403,000 and $195,000. The ratio is almost 2 to 1.
That's how the fraud of DJT was possible and the Dems were part of it.
22
In order to accumulate wealth, you have to live below your income and save money. Apparently, very few people are willing and able to do this. More equal incomes would make this easier, but even among people with relatively low incomes, there are a number of frugal people with substantial assets.
At the median household income of $55K, you should be able to accumulate assets of $389K over a lifetime of savings and investing.
It seems like a greed spirited death spiral, akin to ancient Rome - the rich get richer and can buy ever more politicians to keep the bulk of power and wealth in their hands ad infinitum. Until we are totally conquered from within (trumpism) or from without (?) The American myth of equal opportunity is now just that. i believe that this is happening not because we are the only country that is being pulled into the black hole of global workforce/ global economy. Rather we are the country based first and foremost on individual greed, not tribal loyalty or the "common good". This worked out well after WW2 but has morphed into a cancer. Even if a Wilson or FDR comes along he/she will be smeared so effectively by the frightened top % that the people will turn away and vote against their best interests once again. Because as was proven in 2016 we are a nation that can be herded with propaganda and entertainment like sheep. So many people thought trump was the savior to stand up for the common downtrodden man. Instead they got a simple minded racist, dictator-wanna be who has done much for that rich class of which he is part of (or still strives to be) and done nothing for the little guy except make sure he has his assault weapons.
1
Excellent!
How can we pay today's teachers let alone tomorrow's when yesterday's teachers are drawing large pensions for longer and longer periods of time?
4
Your definition of LARGE is interesting. I suggest you look at how pensions are stuctured, and actual amounts.
1
Thank the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) for this 30 year attack in state legislatures to bust teacher unions, lower all government worker pay, and sway public thinking about "lazy" public sector workers by attacking teachers, police, and all public sector workers no matter how much society needs them or how well educated they are.
If it was up to ALEC, all government services would be privatized (private police forces, private schools, private trash collection, gated communities etc. etc.) so contractors can pay workers less benefits/and pay while lining the pockets of the private contractor CEOs. This is a well orchestrated 30 year campaign by ALEC to PRIVATIZE all public services and attack "lazy" public sector workers because ALEC does not believe in the public good or a just society; their only goal is and has been to remake the progressive America of the 1960s and 1970s into a crony capitalist, oligarchical state.
Mission accomplished.
11
Its a matter of the passengers starting to kill each other instead of finding the lifeboats as the titanic sinks. States have become increasing broke, in large part due to generous public sector pension fund obligations. Gerrymandered red states have doubled down by robotically lowering taxes to insure the financial backing of the rich guys, but that largess hasn't grown their GDPs. So they rob the (so far) weakest - police, teachers, food inspectors, wildlife protection etc. Something tells me each side will keep fighting for their way even 200 ft underwater.
1
This is not new. One of the underlying causes of underpaying public servants has been a decades-long effort by Republicans to discredit, disparage, and disrespect people who chose to work for the government. This campaign has made it possible for voters and legislators to consider it appropriate to punish public servants economically. Well-qualified college graduates avoid working for the government, and many of the best people leave government employment. Consequently, government lags behind other sectors of the economy in efficiency and effectiveness--a self-fulfilling prophesy. I speak from experience, having worked for both the states of Ohio and Maine--and then leaving public service in order to afford to send my kids to college.
3
The plutocrats have been brilliant at turning average Americans against one another so that the plutocrats can continue to rake in money for themselves at taxpayer expense. Public sector pensions are a particular flash point.
Through effective anti-pension campaigns, private sector workers demonize public sector workers for their pensions. The media demonizes public sector workers for their pensions using extreme outliers to highlight the evils of pensions. (See NY Times recent article "A $76,000 Monthly Pension: Why States and Cities Are Short on Cash".)
The media and private sector workers demonize the public sector pension because it is seen as overly generous (never mind the lower pay during your earning years, that fact is often glossed over or seen as inaccurate, which it is not). When will the average American worker (and the reporters), instead of saying, "Why do the public workers get that? They shouldn't get that!" say, "Why don't we get that? We should get that too!"
As private sector workers seethe against public pensioners, demanding that they be converted to 401(k)-style defined contribution plans instead of defined benefit plans, maybe they should ask, "Who benefits?" The private investment firms, that's who! They can rake in on fees on individual accounts with that set up, which they can't with public employee retirement systems (PERS) running the show. Why aren't their massive PERS-like entities in the private sector?
11
With less international threat than that of the twentieth century, things like common defense, general welfare promotion and secured blessings of liberty lose importance. Read some Mark Twain if you want to relive the 19th century, to which we are devolving.
4
The privatization of America is a long game of a group of libertarian radicals led by the Koch’s and their ilk and they have waged a so far, successful war on our democracy and public servants are a casualty of this decades long move to destroy our democracy. Reagan was a puppet of these people. For the real story and history read Dark Money by Jane Mayer. And vote blue up and down the ticket in Nov. our only hope of turning this train wreck around.
17
The equation is simple High taxed areas = higher paid teachers. In Westchester County NY a 4th grade teacher with 20 years of experience makes 140K. If you can afford to live in Westchester you pay the taxes and have better paid teachers. NY State has a teacher's union which has been effective in keeping teacher salaries competitive with private sector jobs that require a masters degree. In lower cost/low tax areas like Oklahoma there isn't a union and most likely no cost of living adjustments. I work in the private sector that oversees a very large state IT program. There are very few state employees that could transition to a profit oriented culture. Civil servants provide basic services, beyond routine tasks they have little value.
3
The Koch brothers and other ultra-conservatives who do not want to have an educated public or government services have funded the gerrymandering of state legislatures which control the size and budget of teachers and other public services. A poorly-educated public will not understand when clean air and clean water regulations are gutted. A poorly-educated public will not understand when national parks and public lands are auctioned off to private developers. A poorly-educated public will not understand when they are told that tax laws are revised to put money in their pockets, and the real beneficiaries are the upper 10% of income earners. The whole public body is deeply infected by the "take from the poor and give to the rich" bug which, through federal and state legislative actions, is decimating the middle class and exponentially accelerating the gap between the haves and have nots. Past political generations understood well that the body corporate needed a strong social network to achieve collective integration. The current leaders in state and federal offices do not. There will be a political revolution and a flattening of incomes and wealth will have to follow. States cannot deprive enough voters of their right to cast ballots fast enough to prevent that from happening. As a 1 percenter, I welcome it. We need to protect each other from the bottom up and to be an inclusive society.
20
Thank you. I could not have explained it better myself. People are not reading between the lines. While I'm not formally well educated(just an Associates Degree), I am an avid reader and I am terrified for the future of this country.
1
This retired public servant(I was a civilian federal employee from 1973 to 2005) began to lose his foothold in the middle class starting with the inauguration of President Reagan in January 1981, Reagan cut taxes for the 1% and never gave civilian federal employees cost of living increases that were equal to the inflation rate. My fall from the middle class was completed in 1986 when my daughter was born. I married in 1984 and bought a modest house with my ex-wife. The 30 year fixed mortgage rate was about 17% in 1984. In 1986 my daughter was born, my wife never returned to work full time so I had to pay the bulk of our living expenses with only my inadequate salary. Goodbye "middle class"!
7
What has happened? Could our faith in the benevolent, all-seeing, super-qualified public sector be misplaced? Isn’t Government the answer to remedation of all social ills? Perhaps not. Government in action appears to result in mediocrity - at best.
3
Unfortunately, the public sector, i.e., the bureaucracy that it imposes, has become rife with not very highly motivated people who barely make a difference in improving the situations for which they are responsible. Working for retirement becomes the norm. This is particularly true in large societies like our own where anonymity covers a multitude of sins. Even well-intentioned bureaucrats tend to moderate their expectations to fit the culture that surrounds them. In New York the problem is conspicuous.
1
Perfect mind control speak from the Koch brothers. There are basic tasks that ensure a functioning society that cannot be driven on strict ROI, if lowering taxes was the answer to economic growth, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Kansas, Kentucky would not be having teacher revolts. If your state has poor schools, companies with the educated work forces will not locate there.
2
Hyperbole. That is why we can't have serious discussions anymore. No one has ever described public servants as "...all-seeing, super-qualified..." You did, just now. But I guess I shouldn't stand in the way of a carefully constructed straw man argument.
1
“Reducing state and local payrolls, of course, is a goal that has champions and detractors. Anti-tax crusaders, concerned about cost and overreach, have longed for a smaller government that delivers only the most limited services. Public-sector defenders worry that shortages of restaurant inspectors, rat exterminators, mental health counselors and the like will hurt neighborhoods. Pothole-studded roads and unreliable garbage pickup don’t entice businesses, either.”
Right there lies the crux of the conondrum. Right there lies the rift, the gap, the anger, between Right and Left, Liberal/Progressive and Conservative, Democrat vs. Republican. Cognitive dissonance. Two opposite world views, philosophical opposites. We simmply do not understand the opposite view, are repulsed by the other.
My father was an immigrant from hyperinflation German of 1924. As a Center/Right Republican he used to say, “Taxxes are the right and responsibility of all citizens.”
Yes, I fear for America. We have fallen from the power of world leading economy. We have bought the snake oil of the selfish, succumed to the Oligarchs. The pundulum has swung so far. And I don’t perceive a way of rebalancing, a compromise, a coming together.
7
When I was young they taught me well
That demand was base on our commonweal.
And if we spent wisely on the public good,
We'd go to great schools in fine neighborhoods.
Then along came the Me-smiths, denouncing this
Desire for the commons as communist.
And pay for play politics was charged
When the Court said Plutocrats enlarged
Our country by buying all the pols who ran it,
Sic semper tyrannus et Aeterna deficit.
Yet still I wonder after all of this,
Who will teach reading if they're not paid for it?
And what will we do in that future when
None will read, none know what's truly good for them?
7
While I completely agree that public sector salaries need to be fair and align with inflation and basic cost-of-living, we also need to look very closely at pensions and retirement benefits. A good place to start would be with our state and federal leadership, specifically the members of Congress; as I understand the situation, their post-retirement benefits seem to be quite extravagant, at least as compared to a typical firefighter, public school teacher, et cetera.
156
The firefighters in my south Louisiana town get excellent pay and benefits and can take full retirement after 20 years. The fire department also takes the second biggest chunk of money from our tax bills.
1
The race to the bottom continues. Anybody surprised that the public sector is being ratcheted down just as the private sector has been doing for decades? As companies have been taken apart and the benefits eliminated to increase stock prices and tax cuts have been used to ease the "burden" on the poor abused 1%, the middle class has been the greatest victim. There has been no pay increase for the middle class since the 70s. We've shipped our union manufacturing jobs over seas and imported poor uneducated people to insure that the working class had to compete as well lowering wages and insuring they don't get anywhere either. With the tax base whittled away and stressed tax payers looking for relief, the public sector is now on the hot seat. Welcome to the future.
10
"We've shipped our union manufacturing jobs over seas and imported poor uneducated people to insure that the working class had to compete as well lowering wages and insuring they don't get anywhere either." Could this be why Donald Trump won against Hillary? The media would rather blame Facebook and the Russians.
"No one wants to raise taxes, but ..."
Why does no one want to raises taxes? Taxes are ridiculously low across most of the US, especially in the states highlighted in this article. There's huge scope to raise taxes, which will improve services, which will provide a basis for economic growth. Saying you don't want to raise taxes is saying you don't understand that raising taxes can be the basis of economic growth because you've swallowed a false premise. Don't choke on the ideology.
11
Show me where in the public sector you can bank hundreds of hours of sick time and get paid for it when you leave.
Show me where you can bank 200+ hours of vacation time and get paid for it when you leave.
Show me what firms allow you to put in 20 hours and collect a pension for 40 years at taxpayer expense.
Yes, some make less but at the end of the day, they are compensated pretty well for these low skill position. Doesn't take much to work at post office, DMV, town offices, etc
7
I believe your meant "private sector", private businesses and corporations.
If that is true, I could have shown you where I worked where I got at least some of those things. But that was decades ago, and Americans chose not to have the things you mentioned. Nevertheless, I might suggest one's efforts might be better directed by advocating for improving one's own position, rather than tearing down another's position.
9
Police officers on Long Island, especially Nassau County. Newsday has run articles on their unbelievable compensation/benefits/retirement packages for years, to no avail.
1
I think you meant to say "...in the private sector..." If so, I agree.
Between 2010 and 2016, the government agency I work for had its budget slashed by one Billion Dollars. This isn't a democratic or republican problem--these drastic cuts to our budget took place prior to the current administration. Voters from both sides of the aisle want lower taxes while ignoring the fundamental cost to their quality of life that results from their lower bill.
7
Here in the Rust Belt, people constantly complain about the pay rate, benefits, and pensions of public employees. This is the direct consequence of the gutting of good paying manufacturing and industrial jobs in the region. The comparison between the relatively low paying service jobs that now form the basis of our economy and the current pay for public service workers must be viewed through the prism of history. In the 50's, 60's, and 70's, anyone who wanted a good paying job in a factory had their pick of the field when they graduated high school. Many didn't see the benefit of paying for college only to end up in a teacher, clerk, administrator, or other government job that paid significantly less. Therefore, benefits like health care and good pensions were boosted as a means to attract workers to the public sector.
Fast forward to the 80's, 90's and 00's when all the factories closed. Now that the workforce is dominated by minimum wage, part-time jobs with no benefits, the public sector workers that used to be sneered at are now under attack for being overpaid and awarded unsustainable benefits and pensions.
The truth, of course, is that they aren't making a sustainable wage, either, they're just less poor than the fast food workers and Walmart clerks that now dominate our economy. The "bloated" pension benefits are instead the just reward for people who turned down big money factory jobs back in the day to work instead in the public sector for much less money.
20
This is blue state problem as well so do not just blame Republicans. One of my children works providing social services to the homeless here in New York. New York has outsourced many social service functions to private agencies. Those private agencies pay around $15/hour to someone with a college degree in one of the most expensive real estate markets in our country.
3
I am horrified that this failure to recognize and value our public servants and the incredibly important jobs that they do is one more symptom of the dumbing down of America. If we don't get big money out of politics, our democracy could be doomed. We must have leaders who care about the people and their happiness, education, and health care rather than how many more bombs and nuclear weapons can we produce. Vote, people.
9
Jimfaye: many people do vote, and a lot of them elect the people who are deciding to cut their benefits and outsource their jobs. As long as people vote against their economic interests in favor of someone who waves the anti-abortion or anti-gay banner, this will be the result...
I vote, but both parties only want to take all my money away. Whatever little bit is left.
Many others have stated well the fact that public servant salaries vary tremendously by region and state. To a degree this is also true within states and, for teachers, school districts. Compensation in New York State is far superior to, say, West Virginia and that is not offset or entirely offset by lower cost of living in low compensation states. In New York State public employee pensions are less taxable than those of retirees in the private sector (just one example). Teachers I know in NY City metropolitan areas make 6 figure salaries and have medical insurance paid for in whole or significant part even after retirement.
5
In some cities, counties, and states, pension amounts are truly excessive, leading to obligations that run a real risk of bankrupting these entities. In the post office, the workers get not only medical benefits while working, and pension after retired, but also generous medical benefits while retired, the latter which is why the post office is losing money. Many firemen and policemen make 90% to 110% of their active duty pay after retirement, which seems very excessive. I am not calling for the removal of pensions or medical, but if the public unions are not willing to be reasonable about pension amounts, then these agencies will have to decrease their staff to fit their income. Moderate pensions at 70% of working pay seem more fair and more sustainable, medical benefits while working seem fair, but Medicare rather than postal worker extra post-retirement medical supplements also seems more realistic. Be fair here, workers and unions!
3
Is it mostly about the decay of US economy more than anything else? When local government at various levels are unable to meet the rising cost of pension, and etc based on tax revenues, the employees have to suffer, as long as the public services that local residents are expected. The conservatives believe there is plenty of waste in the big government to be trimmed up. However, it is not so simple.
2
Some thoughts:
1) At least their Second Amendment rights are still intact! IMPORTANT!!!
I wonder how many of these poor government workers have five safes full of guns and ammo and no food in the fridge....
2) OK tell us again what you think about Scott Pruitt and his expensive security details that cost more for ONE TRIP than your entire annual salary...not to mention the phone booth and Carson's dining room table set.
3) MAGA!!!!
Wait another ten years when SS and Medicare/Medicaid is slashed to the bone and YOU need to start collecting. Just substitute the words "government workers" with "most Americans".
I guess maybe by then you'll understand why a Government run by a reality teevee star wasn't such a great idea after all. And massive tax cuts will bring in LESS revenue ....hmmmm....just like your home budget. Make less/spend less. That's math.... NOT Republican hocus pocus.
I guess when the 1970's TeeVee Tube plant or the Ole Shoe Factory reopens in your home town ( like Mr. MAGA promised-remember???) you'll be OK.
Maybe a mall will open too. Plenty of American jobs!!
Down with automation! Down with technology!! Factories will employee thousands like they did in the 1970's!!!!
NOT. .....MAGA!!!!!
5
We have met the enemy, and he is us.
or
None of us is as dumb as all of us...
3
"Get the guvmint outta my Social Security and Medicare!"
3
Tell Sharla Marshall to come to NYS where even a gym teacher can make six figures - and with a generous pension.
Destroy the teachers, destroy the middle class.
1
The bashing of teachers and public schools has become a national pastime for the Fox News and red state crowd. I cannot help but suspect that the intention is to starve public schools of the revenue needed for the facilities, materials, personnel, buses and teachers needed to function optimally so that public schools become broken down, bleak, decrepit places that nobody wants to send their kids to. Photographs from around the country of decrepit school buildings, broken furniture in classrooms and forty year old textbooks are pouring in and easily found on the internet. Then the DeVos crowd will legislate vouchers to private schools and religious schools, achieving their goal: to insure that taxpayer money goes to schools whose curriculum is not academically secular and factually science based but religiously oriented. Specifically, we will have creationism, dominionism, bible-study, strictures against LBGT tolerance, health programs focusing on abstinence, climate change denial and whitewashed social studies.
32
Two factors contributing to this:
(1) Pensions paid to retired public sector workers and the growth of Medicaid have crowded out spending in other areas of state budgets.
(2) Rural America has been shrinking for years. In corn and soybean country, the average size of farms has been going up steadily for 100 years. This means fewer, larger, farms per county, fewer farm families per county. As this has unfolded, small towns scattered throughout a county have folded, leaving only the county seat. Predictably, with population gone, government jobs to serve that population have gone too.
4
Privatizing energy and water utilities has been a nightmare and it will get worse if we continue to allow our legislatures to privatize them. Regulation worked if the amount of money coming in was adjusted for population growth and labor cost but it never did. Of course the city and state government wages could never compete with private company wages because the taxes coming in never met the real cost of operations for infrastructure growth and utility management. This is old news, we have known that wages in government would fall short and this gap would increase as Republicans wanted to chip away at regulation.
But we want clean water, we want renewable energy and we want clean air. We need to demand this from our legislatures and if the Republicans will not provide this then Nov. 2018 will be their end. It is about time we vote on people that can deliver not just shout out empty promises.
Public servants give us the best service when they can support their families and live out the American dream. We cannot end up like China, barely seeing each other in the polluted fog called air. We can have our cake and frosting but not with leaders who refuse to listen to us.
2
Can we clear the air a bit? One of the reasons that anti-union sentiment grew so hot and fast in the US was that public sector unions negotiated amazing deals for workers yet did nothing to improve how the public interacts with those employees. In my 25 years in DC, I encountered far more mediocre and out-right bad public sector employees (at city and federal levels) than competent and accommodating ones. At one point in the '90s, it was like every civil servant was running their own real estate or tax service on public time. Yet the lack of accountability allowed these folks to do very little until pension time and enjoy many benefits not available to private sector employees. So excuse me for not being too unhappy about a wage gap.
9
My union never got me an amazing deal, just a lousy salary and a pay cut.
1
Anyone interested in understanding the real cost and inefficiency of our local, state, and federal government? Look no further than the administrators; their numbers and their salaries.
We don't need more money, we need the money to go to the providers. Same thing with our current healthcare. The ACA more than doubled the non-providers taking a piece of the pie. Are readers here that uninformed? NYTimes, your lack of reporting on this real issue is astounding.
3
And they still vote republican!
4
Depends on the gov't job. Military can retire at 38 and draw a check and healthcare free for life. Cops retire at 50. Teachers get all summer off.
Try finding those little niceties in the private sector.
5
"Teachers get all summer off." Let's compare annual hours worked. They may be a bit less for teachers, but only a bit. Salaries are lower than private sector.
The school year for kids is 185 days, 190-195 for teachers. That's 80-85% of the typical private sector year of 230 days.
Where I teach, classes for kids are from 8-2:45. I arrive at school between 7:15 and 7:30. I provide extra help after school 2 or 3 days a week, have an after-school meeting at least 1 day per week, almost never leave before 4, typically leave between 4:30 and 5, and sometimes stay later. I also take work home with me to do on weeknights and weekends.
Summer for teachers is typically 6-8 weeks. However, most summers, I have taught summer school for 4-6 weeks. That has a somewhat shorter day, more like 6-7 hours instead of 8-9, but still involves taking work home with me.
Like many other private sector jobs, teachers are required to get additional professional training. That's throughout their career, and a fair part of that is at their own expense.
Private sector employers contribute 6.25% of their income to Social Security; that is matched by their employer. In many states, teachers contribute both the employer and the employee share to a separate state retirement system. For me, that's 11% of salary; it varies by state.
For those who complain about cushy teacher pensions, they're not that cushy, we worked hard for it, and most of us paid more than private sector employees.
2
Circular firing squad, we will never get out of this without taking bold action.
2
When you vote for a President that says he supports the middle class but really supports his own kind, the mega rich, what can we expect?
3
Thanks Republican law makers. The bigger truth is the voters who keep electing people who have absolutely no interest in the working class voter. It's time that republican voters in red states wake up. Stop electing people because of issue that have zero effect on your like, i.e. guns, God and tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
2
Other and same reasons public servants + non-public citizens are losing foothold in the middle-class. This was published in The Guardian, today, by their NY reporter. Our news media outlets should be right on top of this.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/apr/22/michael-cohen-sean-hannity...
1
The way this country treats its teachers at all levels is shameful, and by extension shows just how much we value education, learning, and knowledge itself. We don’t need outside enemies to destroy us. Our own ignorance will take care of that quite nicely.
7
I thought being a public servant paid well.
Ben Carson, Secretary of HUD, has a $31,000 dining set. Scott Pruitt, EPA, has a $43,000 soundproof phone booth and a SUV with bulletproof seat covers.
So you focus on an Oklahoma school teacher who only makes $28,000 per year in a state that keeps re-electing people who want to dismantle the government. Then they complain about what is happening to them. Maybe stop watching Fox News and stop voting for Republicans, who constantly are "cutting your taxes" which really means "cutting your salary"
3
Not sure this Oklahoma school teacher voted Republican, not sure either school teachers in Oklahoma did.
This was news 20 years ago. So now the Times comes galloping in to tell us, Hey guys, guess what ? The patient died.... Brilliant!
2
I have two friends who are public servants, one at a high level, one not. The one at the high level is doing just fine. But the one in staff of social services has not been near the middle class for ten years. THe fact that the New York times is just waking up to this is a clear indication of why the democrats lost the last election.
5
This article is grossly misleading by cherry picking examples. Oklahoma teachers are paid poorly, but I'm making $72K as a teacher. Certainly, cost of living is higher here than in a small town in Oklahoma, but painting with a broad brush is whitewashing.
What we need in the public sector, particularly in education, is fewer administrators who do nothing but protect their castles.
8
Ben Carson is the poster boy of the Republican civil servant;money and power over everything. Sean Hannity got many millions of dollars from HUD.Ben Carson was on Hannity's show many times and was praised by Ben Carson.Did Carson break the law by helping Hannity? INVESTIGATE Ray Sipe registered Florida voter
2
Scott "Check your pockets" Pruitt is an acceptable civil servant to you?
It would be interesting if NYT reported whether the Governor and state legislators have voted themselves pay raises in the last 10 years.
7
In our county in California, the average salary of a County employee is over $80,000. Along with overtime, health care and a generous pension when they retire, these employees are firmly in the middle class.
Our fear in California is that we can't afford these salaries and benefits for our public servants and our county will go bankrupt like Stockton and other cities.
Why not right an article about the 'rights of taxpayers' who are paying these salaries and the risk of having county leaders strike generous deals with employees that are unsustainable during the next recession?
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2017/10/31/marin-county-to...
5
$80k is middle class in San Francisco? This is Republicans win: by turning the working class against one another. Instead of worrying about civil servants “ripping you off” start thinking about who has been lying to you.
7
If you can afford to live in San Francisco, but would deny your teachers, firefighters and trash collectors a salary to enable them to live within a reasonable commuting distance from your home, then you deserve to pay extra for private schools, put out your own fires, and drive your own garbage to the dump.
12
How do you explain the bankrupt cities in California?
Sounds like the only government job that earns you a decent living is as part of Scott Pruitt's inner circle. That may sound glib, but many of the places featured in this article - Midwest, rural, etc. - tend to vote Republican. Can't they see the connection?
4
Among other notable and intelligent Okie sayings, "We aintagonna send no union-dues to New York City gangsters - tell that to General Motors!!"
And of course GM stripped out the machines and moved the jobs - and that huge plant is still empty - but we showed'em by the Great Billy-Bob we did!
We are proudly a "Right To Work and Starve" state!!
1
Where I live, from 2008 to 2015, while industry wages lagged, public servants (other than teachers) got their annual 2 or 3% raises, until they caught up with industry. That, plus their more generous vacations and earlier retirement, make up the difference. I haven't had a summer off in the 35 years I've been working.
But housing is the biggest headwind. Rents and purchase prices keep going up faster than wages across the board. One local county has actually begun to build a housing project specially for teachers because they cannot pay them enough to house themselves.
4
As long as our nation takes a "me only" attitude, this country will continue to fall apart. When we were actually great, we cared about what happened to one another but greed has blinded us. If you are fine with dirty drinking water, failing schools, giant potholes, rats in restaurants, and the current rat in the White House, great. The only way out is to have a fair and equitable tax system. Both wealthy individuals and corporations need to pay their fair share and this will only happen when loopholes and tax havens are closed, and tax rates are increased. A good place to start would be to slash military spending by closing bases, plants that produce weapons, and other industries that feed states with an endless funding stream, and use the federal money spent in these areas to retrain and staff public sector jobs. At the same time, taxes should should be raised, but targeted on upper income brackets and corporations. It could be the new, New Deal, offering both employment and bettering the nation. Solutions exist but we need to think differently about how to solve our nation's problem, of which there are many.
8
The public sector is full of smarts. The same NYT ran an article on people getting 75K+ (month!) pensions.
Getting multiple pensions is a fine art in NY and CA (the current guvnor there gets five cumulative, juicy pensions).
The truth is that the tax paying base is no longer able to pay for these extravagant pensions, salaries and benefits.
There has to be some link between the salaries of the public sector and the public that is paying for it. Sadly the gap between the two has continued to widen as the free market, bailouts for 0.1% and "free trade" has decimated the private sector wages.
4
Our current governor, Jerry Brown, has spent his life in public service jobs--community colleges, secretary of state, attorney general, mayor of Oakland, governor (four terms!). Started in his twenties and is now 80. He could have made much more practicing law, since he has a law degree from Yale. Think he's worked for those pensions.
3
My mother's public pension in NJ was $350 a month.
The time honored agreement between the teachers, police, fire and other public employees was that in exchange for lower middle class wages and generous pensions, the jobs would be for life, allowing for a predictable and rising income stream with little possibility of demotions or downsizing issues. Along with this, generous family health benefits, summers off for teachers, and other unique allowances. In major metro areas, due to collective bargaining, with sympathetic politicians, the wages have advanced to solid middle class and the age of retirement allows for second careers, often in other public service jobs. It is true that many workers in poor, rural states have been mired in low pay for a long time but we are now seeing walkouts in those states to reverse the trend, but it must be noted the cost of living is also very low. In Massachusetts many say "get on the State" (payroll), jobs that are coveted and often go to relatives of the well connected. If we apply big city pay to rural areas the gap is wide but so are the costs. One can always "vote with your feet", as President Reagan was fond of saying, this might be one of those times to do precisely that.
6
This article is fake news, at least in California. Cops here make six figures and retired at age 45, then keep collecting full salary for as long as they live. That essentially doubles their lifetime earnings. Every day on my deliveries I pass a retired firefighter my age who is collecting his full salary to sit on his front lawn drinking beer.
Public Employee Unions and the politicians that supported them have saddled state taxpayers with enormous debt. They have essentially strangled the golden goose. If pay and benefits have been cut and jobs outsourced it is because taxpayers and politicians are now being confronted with the unsustainable obligations that have been incurred. It has to end.
12
Yes, because all retired firefighters sit on their front lawn drinking all day. Every one of them. And guess what, the cancer rate is extremely high, the lifetime expectancy after retirement is very low. And then, of course, there are injuries sustained during a career of firefighting.
4
Firefighters have inherently dangerous jobs. It's common knowledge that firefighters suffer from impaired lung and cognitive function caused by smoke inhalation. It's not public employees who are at fault for pension issues. It's the elected politicians who have mismanaged state and local budgets for years (decades) and have failed to adjust tax policies up and down to match the actual need for revenue. If the Times had reporters who understand the interplay between government and politics, we would see useful articles on this matter. But the Times does not, nor does any other news organization. Has the Times usefully parsed the $170 billion New York State budget just passed and signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo and the inept NYS Legislature? Of course, not. Has the Times tried to measure the amount of money raked off by the overhead costs of state and local agencies, and the not-for-profits? You have medical system executives making $10 million a year. Most of their system revenue comes from Medicaid and Medicare patients. That's all taxpayer money. Has the Times looked at that?
3
Next time your house is on fire, or you need a police officer, please be sure to first ask them about their post-retirement plans and if they involve front yard beer drinking—then feel free to decline their services.
The right’s greatest success has been convincing the average working class voter to be more suspicious of their fellow working class colleagues than of the supposedly benevolent billionaires who have been playing them like violins. Wake up, Paul...there’s a rube in every scam—and it looks like it’s you.
5
When are people going to connect the dots between tax cuts for the rich and the deterioration of living standards for the rest of us?
40
When Americans stop thinking of themselves as "embarrassed millionaires" going through a rough patch and expecting their presidential candidates (Mitt Romney, Donald Trump) to come home and give them investment advice.
5
The difference between rich and the rest of us will look like a Monty Python movie.
The greatest danger in an underpaid civil service is corruption. Think about the countries throughout the world that are crippled by the need to pay bribes to get anything done. Yes, there’s a strong element of greed, but in many places, the civil service that regulates essential services are not paid a living wage. And once corruption takes hold, it is almost impossible to get rid of.
13
While readers may reflexively begin to discuss unionization, it should be noted that many progressives do not support the unionization of public sector employees.
The basic premise remains unchanged: No individual, or group of individuals, should be allowed to commandeer the resources of the public and hold them hostage for personal gain - which is what a public sector union does when its demands for better pay and benefits is backed by an implicit walkout threat.
7
Growing up from a poorer part of China, I remember that during the financially difficult times decades ago when a large fraction of workers simply went unemployed and unpaid, the government and local residents still valued education to the highest degree and kept teachers' salary as a top priority.
Now comes e.g. the Oklahoma teacher's situation. I just cannot be more puzzled: what kind of nation would treat teachers like that ??
24
The same kind of nation that quit making much of its own stuff years ago and decided to just let your country of birth supply us with everything in exchange for Treasury bills.
We have hollowed out our productive capabilities, and educating the next generation to be industrious, knowledgeable citizens is increasingly treated as an exercise in futility.
1
I want public servants who are vetted for honesty, competence, and dedication. I want them to be well paid, well respected, and in for the long haul to accrue institutional memory. I don't want sharks, CEOs, or real estate moguls selecting them. Isn't this what the 99% wants?????? The donor class has had to break the system to make it work for them, and they have been sadly successful.
10
This seems like misinformation. Most public employees, especially in the northeast, are doing great. The question really is: how much longer will states and cities be able to afford their generous pensions and benefits?
12
Things are very different for public employees in many of the right-to-work (red) states. I am a state employee earning half of what someone in a comparable job in the public sector earns, and the benefits and retirement are not superior.
1
This article does correctly point out that overly generous pension commitments to earlier generations of state workers are a big part of the crunch in "Tea-Party" states (surprised Kansas isn't included).
State workers in wealthy states (New York, Connecticut, California, Massachusetts) are much better paid. Of course, if they live in the big cities, they are all but frozen out of the housing market, or live enormous distances from their jobs and endure brutal commutes.
The fact that some smaller unions (the Sandhogs in NY, who are part of the miasma blocking effective public works) have ridiculous contracts should not blind us to the problem: You can't retroactively claw back pensions.
And note, the wonkish belief that killing off teacher unions is the way to fix schools has, with the expansion of charter schools, shown decisively that it's not that simple, that it's not just unions and teacher tenure that explain our education failures.
Fundamentally, should the squeeze on public finances be solved by grinding younger public-sector workers down into the new American working class, the "precariat."?
Doing so will destroy one of the remaining foundations of the Democratic party and make our ever-widening economic injustices worse. Reining in excessive retirement benefits has to be done in the context of redressing general inequality for it to be just and achievable. If we got rid of public-sector unions, there would be almost nothing left of labor power in America.
1
I'm a public employee in the northeast who has $30,000 to live on after taxes. I'd have a lot less if I didn't get dividends.
There is a solution to this dilemma. The federal government must provide more and higher grants to the states. To do this requires a reallocation of taxes away from the military and to social programs and a change in the tax code that says the more you earn above a certain level, the more you pay. To do that requires Democrats.
16
Indeed, while I respect and appreciate the men and women of our military, my sense is that we spend far more on the military than we need or should; a notable portion of that funding should be reallocated to other state and federal entities. I think we can all agree that we definitely need an infrastructure package that we can pay for.
1
And which enlightened mind will choose that 'certain level'? It does not anger me that Mitt Romney makes more money in a year, than I will likely see in a lifetime. It does anger me that his tax rate is lower than mine! What is wrong or immoral about a flat tax that everyone pays? Indeed, it seems to be immoral to be anything other than a flat tax. Honest question.
1
B: Do you really think that Mitt Romney is worth that much more than you, or that CEO's get millions in bonus's just because they were able to off shore jobs and bring in profit? I don't! The more they make the more they should pay and a flat tax just allows them to laugh their way to the bank.
So, stop voting Republicans in office people. They are all about the rich and promoting tax cuts to help big business. The GOP is the party of the rich and privileged not the party of the working classes. They don't care about public education, police, firefighters, etc. They have their own charter schools, private security, gated communities, etc. to avoid contact with the serfs. Wake up people and vote in your best interest - that is - not for the Republicans!
43
Kris, read the piece about gentrification and the use of low paid voters by progressives in coastal areas.
OK, so are you trying to justify the GOP's attitude towards workers? What is your point? I lived and worked in a coastal area BTW.
The problem with Public Sector jobs is that (Generally) they are funded by local residents and businesses. They have No Product so they can't raise prices to increase revenues. They can only raise taxes.
Now, the biggest attraction for public jobs is usually security and pensions but those pensions are based on future taxes and they often kick in right after a 20 year service is up and are paid at a good percentage of the actual salary and often continue medical benefits. As more and more people retire and become pension receivers instead of pension contributors the municipalities find themselves paying 2 or 3 people when only one of them actually works there. So Taxes are raised and the result is people and businesses leave because they can't afford to stay. So revenues actually decrease and the Municipality can't afford to pay good salaries or have enough people and tools to do the jobs properly. BTW, this is exactly what killed GM:unsustainable pensions. And, they could raise car prices! It isn't unique to public jobs. What is happening is not a Value Judgement. It is mathematics. The pension structure has to be revisited. People cannot expect to work 20 years and get paid for 60. This is not to say that there aren't misallocations but a teacher who is paid $28000 is not the actual cost to the town she works in. More than likely there are two other teachers getting a similar paycheck that don't work there anymore.
12
Public sector workers produce a lot of incredibly valuable things: educated adults, a healthy workforce, a thriving natural environment. These things at far more valuable than the latest flash-in-the-pan silly app to share photos. In fact the issue is that rich people simply do not pay their share.
3
Your thinking is somewhat flawed. If pensions are funded correctly, the pension salary is paid by the pension, not the school, county or state gov't. Often states have taken from the pension fund to make up for deficits. I paid 10%, my employer paid 10% of my salary to my pension for 32 years. It is a good pension, but I was also underpaid for 32 years based on my education and experience. I choose to work in the public sector knowing that my pension was part of the overall compensation. I now realize that the baby boom is causing financial issues as we retire, but I would like to point out that tax revenue across the country has been cut since the 1990's to point of crisis. Gov't is needed to provide services that impact our country to such a level that I could not list all the services in this format. Please do more homework and recognize that the growth of this countries middle class was often the result of unions and secure positions within the public sector.
2
The pension you refer to seem to mostly apply to jobs like police, fireman. Pension calculation vary by state, but most teachers retire at around age 62 with 35 years on the job and having paid into the system (their district matches it along the way) to get maybe 70% of salary, no social security and probably no medical insurance. This is an example of a good pension system. If you are poorly paid to begin with, this formula certainly doesn’t make retirement and pensions enough to be middle class.
It has't happened in our county. Last year the median earnings for county employees - police, fire, social workers, admin, etc - was $118k (including a lot of overtime and health insurance). Median income for households in the country was $57k. Who is lagging behind????
12
I’ll bet your schools are pretty good....
1
Do us all a favor.
Take LEOs and Firefighters out of that equation.
THEN tell us what the median is.
Maybe you should reign in "out of control" LEO salaries?
2
You should have become a cop or a fireman. Chances are you wouldn't be living in Santa Barbara, but the commute from Pacoima isn't too bad.
It seems that the disparity in wages comes. down to the fact that teachers, perhaps the most important job, get paid poorly. In urban areas, police officers and firemen often make six figures after just a few years on the job. Our society has been taken over by greed and lost any sense of morality. money, money, money.
9
Paul, it would seem that the LEOs in your area are still underpaid as they are expected to have expertise in law, hand to hand combat, shooting people in the pinkie as they are attacking, mental health expertise, predicting the future, mind reading, couples counseling, and a variety of other professions that pay very good salaries by themselves.
As an adjunct professor who struggles to keep my wages above the federal minimum, no benefits, laughable 'retirement,' I see it as my job to dissuade any students from a teaching career. How do I do it? I tell them the truth.
24
I tell the same truth to my students here in France.
1
Isn't it amazing that there isn't a more effective way to get out this message than to have folks like you spread the word? Our economy does a pretty poor job of communicating where the jobs are and what they pay.
2
Pubic employees are doing as well or better than their private counterparts. Benefits are far better and salaries are as well in many cases. I know around here Police, Firefighter, and Teacher, jobs are easily six figure. Cost of living is also high, particularly for housing, but that is an issue for all.
12
That is not the case in my state where salaries lag behind those in the private sector. Trying to fill vacancies is difficult because of low pay, particularly in technology areas. Despite excellent reviews I myself have not had a salary increase in 13 years other than a 1 or 2 percent cost of living increase every 4-5 years. I am worse off now than I was 20 years ago. The state has hundreds of jobs that are open - look at what happened at the prison last week when inmates we're killed. The prison is woefully short-staffed but again, pay is pretty low.
1
Please, oh please, do tell whet Teachers Salaries are 6 figures.
(Hint: the two numbers to the right of the decimal aren't considered figures)
4
And what are the salaries for the front line DMV clerks, the janitors, social services, road repair, maintenance, food services, doctors, nurses, orderlies, aides, epidemiologists, eligibility workers and the hundreds of other public servants who are falling behind in pay, benefits and status, while dealing with increased case/workloads, dwindling resources and an ever more demanding and often abusive public.
The first responders and teachers are a small fraction of government employment. Local and state web sites, clerical personnel who answer phones, code enforcement officers, the people who replace and repair street lights - the worth of the cadre of personnel that it takes to do the work of government is diminished without thought of the consequences.
2
The big business, big money GOP donor class wants to outsource and offshore all the jobs they can. Tax cuts do not prevent this. Tax cuts accelerate automation, and further empower the rich to control the government via their GOP puppets in the Congress.
11
“The minute they have someone in the nursing home they perceive to be mistreated, we’re the first people they come to,” she said. “They want us when they need us. And when they no longer need us again, they don’t want us.”
This so accurately reflects my time with State government in a low-tax red state. It was so demoralizing. I worked with some incredible people, smart and hardworking. In the years since I left it's only gotten worse for them. A team of 4 now doing the work of a team of 9. No raises in a decade. No one wants to pay taxes but when someone dumps oil on their property, suddenly those same people are demanding to know WHERE'S THE GOVERNMENT? You can't have it both ways. When these services are eventually gone altogether and private citizens are truly on their own then maybe they'll see the error of their selfish ways, but I doubt it. Of course we all hate paying taxes. I hate paying rent too but I sure like having a place to live.
36
Commitment to the common good began to unravel during Reagan's two terms. The lie was sold that "government is the problem." In fact, greed was and is the problem. The GOP hates taxes on the wealthiest. The GOP hates Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Policies that protect the rich from paying their fair share are at the heart of many of the worst problems plaguing the US today. Voters need to be reminded of the abuses of the Gilded Age and the righteousness of FDR's New Deal. The Democrats don't need a new message, so much as they need to educate today's citizens of vital lessons most seem to have forgotten or never learned. How might the US once again be a great nation? End voter suppression. Institute meaningful campaign finance reform. Overturn Citizens United. The clock is ticking. Time is of the essence if we are to right the ship of state and play a role in saving the planet from those who would destroy it in the name of a better quarterly earnings report.
36
This is absolutely true. Also, the competence of students began to decline at the same time.
4
Read the controversial treatise written by heralded progressive Patrick Moynihan. Then go back and see when students started their decline, then blame conservatives again if you have the heart to.
1
MHW. For what it is worth, you are absolutely correct. Reagan was the hired pitchman for the project to destroy the protections of the working class. Understandably he has been beatified by the demons who control the flow of assets in this country.
5
Public servants make a daily difference in individual and community lives. Not only do they protect you from crime and douse your fires but they assist the elderly and our children, quiet the barking dog, make sure your home is built to a standard, read stories to your kids and grandkids, etc. They surround you. And perhaps there are those who do it simply for the money but the vast majority of those who I have had the honor to work with do it because they believe they are making a difference...to you.
11
When will the US as a whole learn to understand that you need to pay good wages in order to improve the economy. The last 40 years was just a downward spiral for the working class and now that finally shows everywhere.
Infrastructure,schools, pensions.... everything is depleted and on a third world level.
11
This all started with Reagan who waged a war against unions and public service programs. When federal funds are cut, state and local taxes have to go up and there is only so much communities can afford. So to keep the roads clear in winter and the schools open, the first to get cut are the salaries and benefits for public service employees at the local level.
14
this is true and to be expected. Equal opportunity does not guarantee equal results. Everyone has the ability to reason and make choices, and others are doing better obviously than some and that is why their is such a gap between public and private sector outcomes.
2
Actually, no. In this country, winners are cheaters. We need merit, not market.
1
This makes absolutely no sense at all.
Yet public servants in Congress like Paul Ryan will retire on an $80,0000 pension aside from a 401k (with matching). Why are they not derided as well? His salary as speaker was over $200k.
17
Because hypocrisy.
2
Maybe we ought to privatize Congress.
2
Another example of why Donald Trump is president and opioid abuse is rampant.
In our effort to pay the least for product and services, we have decide to beggar ourselves. Always low prices (or taxes) means always low wages. the devils bargain.
4
The name of the game is to support businesses (jobs) and keep the taxes low. What that means is the rich get richer (keep employee wages low) and the poor pay for services the rich don't need (cut services).
2
When I entered public service more than 3 decades ago I did so because a career as a public "servant" was the highest calling one could attain. Public sector jobs were highly competitive and although they paid less than the private sector, there was security, prestige and pretty good benefits.
When my nephew wanted a career in the public sector, I advised him to think twice about it. Although, in the private sector he had a couple patents under his belt & made good money, he longed to work in the public sector & he took the job. Now he worries about layoffs & with 3 young children and a mortgage, he's not as secure as he thought he'd be, but he doesn't want to leave.
Government is the foundation of our Country, our states and their political subdivisions. We absolutely need good government and we don't get good government w/o good workers. Government can't afford to have poorly qualified employees and to get good workers, we need to pay them what they're worth.
Sure, there have been past abuses in the public sector, but that was because the elected officials and management often did not do their jobs adequately...many wanted the perks &/or prestige but were unwilling or unable to do the tough job of oversight & management.
This Country will fail unless we once again ensure a public sector that can protect the people, that means funding education, regulatory agencies, etc. Republicans have gone WAY TOO FAR to kill the public sector and we'll all pay the price.
18
The last few sentences by Ms Moore underlines the idiotic mindset of too many American's. They want and need government services but want their fairy god mothers to pay for it. To add to that idiocy, they vote for candidates that then absolve themselves & their corporate donors of any responsibility to contribute to the Common Good. Time to wise up, put fairy tales away & begin dealing with reality.
14
This country will never get additional qualified teachers if they don't raise the salaries. It's as simple as that. The days of altruistic, self-sacrificing people (women, mostly) who taught the nation's youth----those days are over.
6
Excellent article, many more public workers are needed not less and trillions need to be spent on Public Works, not other people’s wars. I find the occasionally intended “feel good article” about this or that bankster attempting to use The Times to burnish their reputations particularly nauseating and germane to this article, the one on Lloyd Blankfein was a real stinker. He describes his humble beginning living to The Stuyvesant Cooper Village(modest rent control housing in New York)his father a mailman, an example of new Americans being given a helping hand. Why then would someone like this then turn around and try to destroy the system that helped him, why would Tishman Speyer attempt to kick out the residents in their unsuccessful attempt at converting Sty Town to market rate from rent control, particularly when the principals families themselves are relatively new Americans. We once had a one for all, all for one attitude, it’s what made America great, now it’s every greedy man for himself, maybe those who have gained so much should stop for a moment and think how fortunate they were to have had fellow Americans who gave them a leg up or died in Wars so they might live. We don’t want your names on buildings all over town we just want you to quit destroying the American Dream, whether creating financial chaos. C.D,O.s, M.andA. that cost millions their jobs or eliminating public housing that you were lucky enough to benefit from. You’re killing the American Dream.
3
Republican policies in action.
4
America has never been richer...
So, to understand this problem, as well problems associated with education and healthcare, the crumbling infrastructure, the decimated safety net, and the stagnation of middle-class wages for the last forty years, one only has to follow the money trail to see why we can no longer afford the things that made America great in the first place:
Begin with the enormous Reagan tax cuts for the rich in the 1980s... Continue through the gigantic Bush tax cuts for the rich in the 2000s...
And now, take a look at the even more preposterous budget-busting tax giveaway to the rich, via a Republican Congress and a corrupt multi-billionaire posing as populist...
As a result, almost all of the money now rests safely at the very top... Well hidden, and well out of reach from the rest of us, and our children...
The game has been rigged, Folks... And things will only continue to get worse for most of us until we are finally motivated enough to see through the hate, fear, and muck (FOX News) and put aside our differences... We must UNITE AS A PEOPLE to throw these vermin out. There is no other way.
10
The fiscal squeeze on public sector budgets has two roots. One is the tax side, which the author and Dems generally focus on, despite upward-ratcheting tax rates in states like California.
What never gets honest discussion is the deadweight financial burden of public pensions and unfunded retiree medical benefits that have escalated dramatically. By fighting to guarantee lifetime benefits and contractual rights for pension preservation on future service of incumbent employees, the unions and their political allies have painted themselves into a financial corner.
Take a look at the percentage of state and local budgets now spent and projected to be spent on pension and retiree medical benefits, vs the percentage in 2007. You'll quickly see that the problem is not tax rates in most jurisdictions.
The net result is that proposed new tax increases will not actually fund service expansion and restoration, they will mostly go for bailing out retirement benefits that should have been nipped a decade ago when the handwriting was on the wall. Now it's too late, as Baby Boomer employees are retiring with unfunded benefits.
The truth hurts, but it's time for the public service community to look in the mirror on this issue, and own up to the real roots of the problem.
5
One more factor in the destruction of the middle class and public workers: the worship of the stock market. When we made the Dow Jones and friends the only game in town. the only way to survive and stay ahead of inflation and gov't cuts, we created a system in which corporate bottom lines mattered more than any other good or interest. We watch the daily fluctuations of the market like it is the entrails of a dying animal that will tell us our future. Public servants (sic) don't fit into the equation. In fact, they are seen as a drag on the uptick of wealth for the nation. Foolish and wrong, but common.
6
Why are we at war with our ourselves? Public servants of all kinds have long benefitted our citizens: teaching our children, caring for our sick, protecting our communities. Yet somehow these people have become our enemies — “takers” the red-faced, roaring politicians and pundits say. While corporations and profiteers of all kinds are revered as heroes and “deals” lauded as “art.”
Solid wages across an economy are spent by those who earn them. This results in jobs and wages for other citizens. That’s how economies grow and civil society thrives. We should stop listening to the blustering talking heads and ask ourselves what an economy is for. Who(m) should it serve?
322
If you are wealthy you don't want to pay for them. If you have less then you don't want others to have more. Can it be that the wealthy fan those flames so we fight against ourselves? I've always wondered why instead of trying to get more (unions?) folks try to take it away from others.
6
All while this president and his family apply for, and receive, dozens of special visas to bring in foreign labor (cooks, landscapers, maids) at below market wages. If these Republicans were telling the truth, Trump and his business buddies must raise wages at their establishments until unemployed or under-employed or part-time employed Americans are willing to move to take those jobs. In fact, they do not believe in government, are anarchists and want to destroy all public service infrastructure -- starting with public schools and public hospitals.
4
the public sector haters want full 'champagne' protection at beer prices
4
I live next to a retired policeman earning 90K at 50. There has to be a middle ground.
5
I sincerely hope all of these public servants vote in every election and stop voting for these "smaller government" frauds. Smaller government and tax breaks for millionaires is the reason why we have unfunded pensions and pubic servants who haven't had a raise in 10 years.
Good government means a budget that addresses the needs of the current and future - the Bush tax breaks while we were at war and the Trump tax breaks while we are still at war have starved local government and their employees - vote your interests - vote in every election, every time.
2
Agree that more of our county's wealth should go into raising salaries of public employees, especially teachers. We claim we care about education, but we are not willing to pay competitive salaries to keep best people in public sectors. Less tax breaks for wealthy, higher salaries for teachers.
9
For all the commentators whose rebuttal is ‘but what about my state where’, please think of states like Oklahoma and Kansas as canaries in the coal mine. Do you really want to have the incentive to perform public service lowered so far as to only attract the less competent among us? Perhaps if public service attracted the best and the brightest then government would work better, and private companies would be forced to offer similar benefits.
4
Anti-tax Republicans (really, anti-tax for rich people) have successfully convinced most of the general public that taxes are evil. People who will never, absent winning a huge lottery, be affected by the estate tax, are sold on getting rid of it. People who don't understand basic math are in favor of a "flat" tax because it seems "fair." No longer do people associate taxes with services, with decent roads and up to date infrastructure and inexpensive higher education. And, the Democrats have done a lousy job of fighting back. As Buffett actually did say -- there is a class war and the rich are winning.
7
The far right Rs have increasingly denigrated anything with the very word "public" in it:
public education; public transit; public health; public trust; public land; public service.
At the same time, they ensure that the top tier becomes richer than Croesus (never-break-a-sweat Manafort spent 100K on lawn care last year.)
(Of course, those who voted for Trump disproportionately rely on public benefits .)
4
This article is highly misleading.
State government expenditures have grown from $1.1 Trillion in 2008 to $1.7 T in 2016.
A large part of that increase has been absorbed by Medicaid which has grown from 20% of state budget spending to 28% during same period.
5
These co-citizens are "collateral damage" in the right-wing/corporate war against government.
Thirty years ago, government jobs were mocked as decent-paying but had good pensions. Now, countless folks apply for every opening anywhere.
Thank you President Obama for reducing unemployment to the lowest level in decades. However, the jobs that were created on your watch are a poor substitute for the jobs that were lost during the recession.
The "gig" economy has given us a plethora of new jobs that are contract by nature and, typically, don't provide benefits like paid time off, insurance, etc. This is why if you ask people they say the economy isn't doing all that well, while the wealthy are ecstatic.
1
And yet…
The cost of state and local government has tripled (in real, inflation-adjusted dollars) since 1980. With the exception of a few years around the financial crisis of 2008, government employment has grown consistently.
One major problem is the post-retirement cost of public employees. Pension and retiree health care costs are increasingly crowding out state and local spending on current needs. Nationally, the unfunded liability for government employee post-retirement costs approaches $5 trillion. The problem is only going to get worse, as those costs are still increasing.
It turns out that we really couldn’t afford those “good, middle-class” government jobs that this article pines for.
13
Well, we could afford the pensions and healthcare if the corporations would pay taxes too.
And they should since they are "People" these days.
6
It's not that simple. Corporations do, in fact, pay lots of taxes. What has changed is that, today, some 90% of businesses are S corporations or partnerships, so the taxes they pay show up in individual income tax revenue, not corporate taxes revenue.
Don't forget that, in real dollars, state and local spending has tripled since 1980. It's not that government isn't getting the revenue, it's that, as fast as revenues have increased, spending has increased.
Bottom line is that it's a spending problem, not a revenue problem.
The best thing President Trump could do would be to issue an Executive Order barring all public employee unions from any governmental entity that receives any federal government funding.
There was very good reason that FDR would not support unions for US Government employees. We have seen the effect of the corrupt bargain of public employee unions providing the largest base of support for many politicians in exchange for unwavering support of wage and benefit increases by those politicians for those same employees.
This is the very definition of corruption and no liberty loving American should support this blatant corruption.
11
That may be true where you live. I am a public employee who pays into the retirement system and does not have medical benefits when I retire. I’m not complaining; I just want to point out that this is a local issue. I live in an area where politicians successfully run on cutting salaries and benefits for public employees. The result is that we can’t keep employees; people will work until they can find another job. It’s not an efficient way to run a government.
Correct. The corrupt bargain you describe is nothing more than political corruption. It's simply a money laundering scheme. Politicians support public employee unions. Those unions donate to those politicians. Those politicians then vote to provide generous wage and benefit increases. The taxpayers are then stuck with the bill.
FDR was not in favor of barring unions, he was against public sector unions striking & having collective bargaining. FDR said " Organizations of Government employees have a logical place in Government affairs.
The desire of Government employees for fair and adequate pay, reasonable hours of work, safe and suitable working conditions, development of opportunities for advancement, facilities for fair and impartial consideration and review of grievances, and other objectives of a proper employee relations policy, is basically no different from that of employees in private industry. Organization on their part to present their views on such matters is both natural and logical, but meticulous attention should be paid to the special relationships and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the Government." (http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=15445)
Federal employee unions do not negotiate pay & benefits; they are barred from striking. Agencies have to bargain with unions over all matters affecting working conditions, with certain exceptions. The exceptions include: matters going to the heart of managing the enterprise, such as establishing the basic budget; matters already set by law or government-wide regulations; and classification matters.
1
The GOP's decades-long assault on the working class has had it desired effect: a broad decline in the economic security and prosperity of many millions of american workers.
7
Always easy to pick on red states such as Oklahoma. Yes, it is bad policy, due to myopic tax cutting and denial of the value of public services. However, take a look at states such as Illinois, Connecticut and California. Public employees are paid very well, along with very generous benefits and retirement compensation. All of those highly taxed states are struggling to pay for public schools, highways and other such services because they can't continue to raise taxes without citizens moving away. A balance is necessary, which is not very interesting to discuss. There are problems that need to be addressed on both sides of this issue.
9
This is what you get when dreamers and radicals take power. They became convince that government spending is wasteful and ultimately oppressive even for those who benefit. They had this dream that if government spending was cut, taxes slashed there would be an American Renaissance.
A curious thought in a post industrial society. Like all dreamers and radicals they did not bother to think it through and now we are left to pick up the pieces.
7
Florida and the New South South Carolina, etc. supported the idea of a low-tax state with a badly educated workforce is sustainable in the long term.
When Florida is underwater on a more permanent basis - in a decade-, they will appreciate the benefits that the northern states pay for such as FEMA and other disaster relief. I think Texas got a bit of a taste of its own conservative medicine during Hurricane Harvey. Wasnt the government great then? I think so.
4
Shala Marshall' AGI may be $28000, but that doesn't reflect what she is paid - this figure subtracts her personal deduction from her gross income, which means she grosses at least $36000 (my figure may not be entirely accurate either). Now, that's still not much income for a professional with 17 years experience, but it's more accurate than what you reported. What was her gross pay for her teaching job?
1
The voracious and insatiable appetite of the tiny < 0.01% ruling-elite UHNWI's for the extraction and upward flow of all wealth is now so great and pervasive that the combined working-class, lower-middle class, and even middle-class can no longer support this raging river of wealth concentration up-stream.
Now, any further wealth extraction will have to cut into the comfortable upper-middle-class --- which brings the substantial risk that this steep a pyramid of wealth in any historical Empire has precipitated collapse.
While the vast majority of those Americans who have already felt the pain of down-sizing of their incomes didn't even know the meaning of the GINI Coefficient of Wealth Inequality --- this next upper middle-class fully understands that this is not the kind of GINI to base a wish on.
When even the $500,000 professional and managerial 'working-stiffs' become notably uncomfortable, get nervous about their real estate assets, and worry about their costs of living this disguised global capitalist Empire only HQed in, and merely 'posing' as, America could well start to shudder like the unsinkable RMS Titanic of the past British Empire.
5
Perhaps if public schools were abolished, Shala Marshall would earn exactly what her skills and ambition are truly equal to. Then again, if the only way she can earn is by using the government's police power to force people to pay her and force students to attend her classes, then she is earning exactly what she deserves.
Question to Shala Marshall: Do you believe that no one would voluntarily pay you to teach their children?
2
It's always amusing to hear from the libertarian corner.
If Shala owned a teaching business, and the parents of a few of the children she taught refused to pay her, even though they were financially able to do so, then some 'police power' would still be necessary, correct? Would this 'police power' be from the government or from some other entity? Or perhaps from Shala herself. If it's from one of the latter, one could envision the situation (and society in general) devolving into some sort of 'Mad Max: The Road Warrior' state of affairs.
Or what if some of the parents of Shala's students refused to pay her unless their children were given straight A's, whether or don't they deserved them? What if your child, through hard work and perseverance, received an A, and your neighbor's child also received and A because his or her parents basically resorted to extortion? And furthermore, your neighbor's child with their straight A's went to an Ivy League university, taking the place of your more deserving child?
Yes, Rand's libertarian utopia looks pretty enticing until you consider the fact that there is a certain percentage of people who are not honorable, who lie, who cheat, and that the economic theory of 'perfect information' is just that: a theory that exists only in text books.
Clearly this is another left wing plug piece. While this may be true in some parts of the country, this is clearly untrue of the public sector on the coasts. A look at the numbers at least in California where I live would reveal public employees truly having a field day at the tax payer's expense. Their wages, benefits and pensions are rich beyond what anyone in the private sector could imagine. Dont believe me? Look this up: https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2016/santa-clara-county/. This would tell you why California taxpayers are at breaking point with the taxes they have to pay for the gold plated retirements of public sector employees.
3
This is a classic argument that the Republican Party has been using since Ronald Reagan won the presidency. I'm not saying that aren't excesses in some coastal states public employee pension system - I ought to know - I live in "Taxachusettes". But it is disingenuous to highlight some excesses and use this as an argument that implies that pensions are bad for free market capitalism. We in the private sector shouldn't be jealous of pensions. In the 1950's and 1960's most large corporations provided pensions to their workers. My 101 year old mother-in-law worked for GE back in those days and she has a pension. We should be looking for ways to ameliorate the economic insecurity that is growing exponentially in the USA. If the current trend is left unchecked, we are going to have large masses of homeless people living on the streets. Already the Conservatives have their eyes on Social Security and Medicare. This fight is our fight.
1
The fallacious argument of the 'welfare queen' translated to public servants.
Sure cops and firemen get to retire after 20 or 25 years on the job (dangerous jobs I might add) and receive a pension (a pension that doesn't keep up with the cost of living I might also add).
But ask yourself this question: If your house is on fire and one of your family members is trapped inside, would you rather have a young, strong 30 y.o. fireman saving them, or would a 57 y.o. one a few years from retirement be OK?
After two terms of Republican Berry's Mayoral administration in Albuquerque, the staff of the city departments have been reduced by 50%, and the city no longer functions. This was mainly to build the mass transportation boondoggle, that does not and cannot function and give the construction to his corporate donors, and members of his family ran the project. This same pattern that was employed by our Republican Governor Martinez at the state level. With the huge tax cut to corporations ("the job creators) we now have the second highest unemployment in the nation, and a net loss of population moving out of the state. Gee, I wonder why New Mexico's economy is in the toilet?
8
When I serve as a Legislative Aide for a city councilman it became clear to me most of our constituents, even in our highly educated district, had no idea the range of services their tax dollars pay for, or how many of those services benefitted the community. And they want endless services but rarely want to pay for them. Is it hard to understand that a new service to sweep leaves off the street in the fall costs money? As the then mayor explained to a caller to his monthly spot on public radio,"Ma'am, I'd love to sweep the leaves from your street but then I'd have to raise your taxes and nobody is asking me to raise their taxes."
9
Here is what you need to know about the differences between public and private schools. Private schools can be selective. Public schools take in everyone and that includes the poor and the handicapped. No one can be turned away. Because of the diversity, more funds need to be allocated. There are specialized teachers hired to handle this diversity, and that includes the handicapped. Someone has to help these students because no student should be turned away from an education. You cannot leave thousands of people without an education. This would definitely lead to unfairness and anarchy.
15
Why should a state that sets its priorities in the manner outlined in this article have two Senators in Congress? The same number as California? But Oklahoma and other low-population red states are harmful to our general welfare and democracy.
23
True. The ridiculous imbalance in senate representation which benefits low population states, which these days are usually republican states, and under-represents large population states which are usually democratic, and the inclusion of senate seats in the electoral college, put both George W. Bush and Donald Trump in the White House despite both losing the popular vote. That isn't democracy.
I taught in various capacities for nearly 20 years, and beginning in the 1980's I told colleagues that the falling working class and middle class wages were going to come and get them, as "tax revolts" don't occur among people whose real wages are rising, but the falling wages of the private sector would catch up with the public sector. Taxes, if well spent, produce the infrastructure that increases productivity, and if the social system sustains wage growth, then you have a positive feedback cycle.
But Reagan attacked the working class, and the high dollar from the Reagan recession (of huge deficits from tax cuts and "tight money") gutted our manufacturing, and the wage drop began. Reagan put our working class in competition with immigrant labor (his big "pardon") and with overseas labor (the deliberate off-shoring and the indirect off-shoring of the high dollar). Clinton tried the "tight labor market" cure for low wages, and it failed. Since then, the working classes continued to lose real wages, and the shape of tax cuts continue to make the system less progressive.
Housing costs in urban areas have become unbearable, destroying quality of life for all.
The only way forward requires massive public housing (for all income levels with tight BEHAVIORAL CONTROLS -- you get booted for bad behavior, swiftly), and tax reform to make the total taxation (including local taxes) more progressive.
The pre-Reagan system is not coming back. (Trump's nostalgia notwithstanding.)
3
As one of these tireless public servants who gets to watch those from the private sector spend so freely on frivolous decadent extravagances, I could care less what they think of me and the way I spend my money. I like my 20 year old car.
6
I have worked for the Government for almost 17 years. I am still amazed at the blatant falsehoods that people circulate about the civil service.
Just last month, I was drawn into a discussion with a very opinionated person (who has never worked with the government) who stated "It's a fact, the lowest paid job in the federal government pays over $70,000 a year..."
Needless to say, that kind of lie flies faster than the truth....
32
There are many workers with job skills barely getting by.
Employers occupy all the market power.
Pensions are falling by the wayside.
Even as labor's productivity has risen since 1980, inequity has worsened.
People are losing consumer protections and health insurance.
Public unions that were robust and strong ensured workers' bargaining power, but less so in these modern times.
It's a multi-featured phenomenon.
5
What kind of a future does a nation expect for itself when its teachers are not paid enough to be even at the lowest rungs of the middle class ladder?
The sad thing is, Americans do pay taxes similar to the rest of the developed world. But instead of having those taxes pay for their teachers and their healthcare and their roads and their environment. Instead it pays for the biggest military in the history of the world! At what point would Americans realize that they work and suffer to subsidize this huge unparalleled war machine at the expense of a better life?
33
Whatever happened to Americans’ commitment to the common good? We demand low taxes and have forgotten that to be a great country it costs money. To be a great country, we need a healthy public sector—we need excellent schools for all children, continual improvements to infrastructure (sewers, utilities, roads, bridges, airports, river/ ocean ports, railroads, etc), cutting edge research and development, beautiful clean cities, green spaces and parks, clean water and air, quality healthcare for all, and a commitment to stewardship of the earth’s resources. We seem committed to doing the opposite.
We have been brainwashed into thinking raising taxes is the work of Satan, rather than a necessity if we wish to be a great nation that prioritizes the common good.
The bottom line is we need to pay more taxes, and we need both a robust public and private sector jobs program that pays a decent living wage. In the great state of Minnesota, on my morning runs in towns like Duluth and Minneapolis in years past, I used to see lawn signs that said “Raise my taxes for the common good”...... That sensibility is what is required to make America great. Until we embrace that thinking, we are in a free-fall.
14
In capitalist systems with their inexorable boom and bust cycles, a large public sector, not susceptible to these cycles, aids the overall economy by buoying demand. It would behoove the Republicans despite their free market fantasies to maintain a strong public sector, but expecting that party to protect the public is obviously asking too much.
Not that the Democrats are without blame. They haven't lifted a finger to fight against Republican right-to-work legislation, and not one of the Democratic party stars bothered to show up and support the striking teachers in various parts of the country (the Times also should be ashamed of its minimal, noncommittal coverage of the strikes).
And Obama, during the worst years of the great recession decided to freeze public employee pay.
The sad truth is, neither party shows a strong commitment to the public sector.
6
State governments dominated by Republicans who want to reduce budget expenses (salaries, pensions) versus increase taxes to pay for quality education are responsible for the decline e in education. Passing right-to-work laws have crippled teachers’ unions. And even using the expression public “servants” denigrates teachers and other public employees. Young teachers need to become politically active to change this.
5
You have failed in this story to differentiate between red states and blue states, between Oklahoma, the south's shameful four, Ark., La. Miss. and Ala., and progressive Pacific Coast and Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic States. Public employees are paid, pensioned and benefitted at solid middle class levels in these states (they might disagree, but people always disagree about whether their own renumeration is as it should be).
The long delayed reaction of teachers and perhaps others in these red states is to the persistent stupidity of a Republican Party determined never to raise taxes
I have never understood and never will how people who work for taxes, teachers, cops, all of them, can vote Republican because they are voting against their own self-interest. They do though in those states and now they are screaming against the result. Well, if the voted for Democrats willing to modernize their tax systems, spend on public services and encourage modern industries like high tech and non-carbon energy they might find society, life and their incomes improving.
The less is, if you work for taxes do not vote for Republicans and if you do then don't cry to the rest of us in your beer, change the brand your drinking in the voting booth.
367
Many, I believe, vote for their afterlife not our present life.
2
very well reasoned and accurate.
3
At least that's the way things worked up till now. Capping the state and local income tax deduction is the Republican way to assure we all become Mississippi.
9
Ironically, while the middle class state government workers in Oklahoma are no longer able to live a stable middle class life, the scum like Scott Pruitt used his own government job to enrich himself with fancy houses and other perks provided by those private individuals whose companies benefited from corrupt government. And the reward for this: the opportunity to gut policies that help ordinary people live healthier lives. Meanwhile, state workers get a small raise--if they don't lose their jobs in another round of closures--and the people who benefit from decent government services (all of us in one way or another) continue to be screwed by the "small government" crowd who are laughing all the way to the bank.
8
People who like to rail at the "government" as the source of problems, not solutions, often ignore the fact that we, the people, are the government.
By hating the government, you're hating all of us.
7
I've spent 12 years at state flagship universities, and another five in a state health and human services department. It's easy to understand why morale is so low for state employees right now.
It used to be the generous retirement benefits justified the low pay, with salaries sometimes 40% lower than the private sector. With state employee pensions under-funded and under attack, employees wonder if the promised retirement benefits will even be there. Not one politician has suggested raising state employee salaries to market rates while attacking the overly generous pension plans.
In Texas, the assumption is that all state employees are stupid and lazy. So they pay peanuts, forcing agencies to hire the worst of the worst, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Then state lawmakers require layer after layer of mindless quality checks, duplicate work, approvals, and reports, because they assume the lazy employees cannot be efficient in their work. The net result, of course, is that the work is designed to be inefficient.
A coworker of mine calculated it cost $85 for a single purchase order to be processed through all of the steps, approvals, contracts, and reports. That's fine for a half-million-dollar MRI, but not a four dollar box of ball-point pens. All of this bureaucracy is required by law, forced in place by the politicians who decry inefficient government, while getting rich from lobbyist dollars.
7
Public services and servants are merely another ingredient in the Oligarchic Recipe of our country's decline. Our current administration wants to add a side of Kleptocracy, seasoning this 'dish' with racism and misogyny.
4
as a retired public servant in California, i find your article very misleading! your overall alarming statements may well be true in the conservative states that do not value teachers and other public servants, but i can assure you that is not the case in California, Oregon, and Washington. Compensation and benefits are so high they bankrupting communities and are placing incredible stress on the states. so i suggest you should have limited your all-encompassing remarks to those states like Oklahoma where your shoe certainly fits!
3
The fix is in and they’re going for the kill shot: the middle class as cash cow and ATM with targets on their backs. This systematic attack on working families and Main St. has been underway since patron saint Ronald Reagan. The dismantling and destruction of the New Deal is almost complete in the 21st century. Yet the NYT represents this as a “news flash.” This economic reduction of the public sector has been bipartisan. Public protections are vilified as “regulations.” Taxes to maintain the public welfare are seen as government theft. Even now Congress voted to deregulate the banks, AGAIN! Congress voted to increase military spending, AGAIN! Children in Yemen are bombed while children in Flint are poisoned. Working three jobs while the 1% deducts private jets is the essence of dystopia.
There is only ONE solution to this misery: unions! Without leverage the people are sheep for the slaughter. However, getting donor money and patronage out of government runs a close second. Politicians from Obama to Trump cannot fool the people all of the time. Even the silent majority can see that immigrants, blacks, abortion, nor transsexuals are not the forces threatening their grandchildren; the corporate agenda is. Archaeologists wonder why ancient civilizations have fallen; perhaps we are about to find out. If the mainstream news media and the voting electorate stand by and watch this without decrying it and taking effective action, then we are all complicit. Have a nice day!
2
Good old Republicans, making America great again! Maybe we should get rid of child labor laws, then Ms. Marshall's two kids can go to work and help support the family. Why should others' tax money pay for those kids to laze about all day in school??
3
Americans are bizarre. We continuously vote against our own self-interest then complain about the lack of fundamental services in our city and towns. From road repair to outdated text books, we have convinced ourselves that our way of life can be achieve and maintain on the cheap.
513
and the public sector haters are among the first to scream " isn't there a law to protect me" after the private sector used the resources for profit ...roads and infrastructure do not pay for or protect themselves
2
It used to be. However, that was in large part due to cheap, abundant fossil fuels. Everything in the economy moves on and is produced with oil, and the plastics that make up part or all of almost all products on our shelves, are made of petroleum. It used to be cheap to live the good life when oil, that moves and creates all, was just 25 cents a gallon at the pump. Add to that the nonstop use of credit -- cards, huge loans for school, consumer goods, housing, and you have the modern world of inflation.
You are quite mistaken. The politicians take our money and waste it instead of spending on infrastructure.
1
This is the logical conclusion of the anti-tax movement on the right, which has even infected many in the Democratic Party who were too chicken to stand up for the idea of government as a public good. The snake oil of lower taxes is always sold without any mention of the damage they do to the social fabric of our nation.
Finally, there are signs that the pendulum has begin to swing back.
3
I worked in City of Chicago, City Hall for 3 years in the 90s. What I experienced was that over 50% of the workforce was incompetent. 25 % were underutilized and not trained or allowed to develop their skills. 25% were fantastic knowledgable, hardworking and indispensable. Waste was everywhere you caredto look.
5
Yes, I still live in Chicago and I would say your comments about waste/incompetence among public workers hold a lot more truth here than this story of rural and red-state public employers. In Cook County, IL public sector jobs are of like a special, protected class: they are paid much higher than comparable private-sector jobs and have generous pensions which are slowly bankrupting our local government. We have the most units of government, the highest level of public sector workforce. We have put public sector workers on a pedestal, while the tax burden falls unequally on the rest of society. Yes, the rich can and should pay more, but our tax structures is basically regressive: high sales taxes, and property taxes -applied regressive (poor areas pay higher effective rates).
3
Can’t expect society as a whole to thrive when a significant sector is in crisis.
2
"Who do you want to pay for it?" Um, how about rich people? Raise the top tax rates, corporate tax rates, and taxes on estates worth millions.
16
Wait you mean to say that firing all those public servants to give tax cuts to corporations and billionaires means that there'll be so much less public services? Who could have foreseen that happening?
16
Utterly shameful. The dismantling of the state that was carefully constructed over decades to actually help individuals and families.
5
A dynamic in this and in the teacher salary debates that I'm not seeing discussed is what's called Baumol's cost disease, which is the fact that salaries rise even in jobs that have experienced no increase in productivity, in response to rising salaries in other jobs where productivity has improved. This creates an ever escalating pressure on government to skimp on pay increases to avoid cuts in services or increases in taxes. My take on this issue as it applies to teacher salaries is at goo.gl/VRZT4p.
1
There are many comments here that this is happening because of the "death" or "damage" to public sector unions. This is misleading--these unions haven't been around that long (most of the growth was since the 1960s) compared to the professions. What this excellent article points to is the death of community and of civic involvement. If people want their kids to have good educations, or unleaded water, or well-paved roads, they have to serve on their school or water boards, and make sure their teachers or other public servants are responsible and properly compensated! The family members I have in Tulsa send their kids to private schools, even though they went to public schools themselves. Times have changed, and this isn't about labor unions, it is about the citizens of Oklahoma and similar states giving up on their public institutions.
6
'Government is the problem" and ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.'” phrases that Ronald Reagan used to get elected and demean the work of government workers at every level. Is it a surprise that people working in public jobs do not get enough respect?
6
Reagan was dead wrong then and it’s still dead wrong.
1
and now he's dead.
and we're all stuck with his legacy of stinginess.
Next week would be a good time to do a story on the pay and benefits of public employees in blue states that dwarf their private sector counterparts, turning the concept of "public servants" upside down. Start with California and the lifeguard that retired with a $100,000 pension. Services in these states and political subdivisions are being crowded out by outrageous pension benefits.
4
“Start with California and the lifeguard that retired with a $100,000 pension.”
I’ll believe that when I see it and even then I’m sure there’s a catch to it, like the “lifeguard” not really being a lifeguard but actually the Director of Parks and Recreation or something like that.
3
that lifeguard, you know, is married to a welfare queen, and they have driven off into the retirement sunset in a brand new Cadillac, paid for by the government out your taxes on your hard earned income as a hod carrier.
you could look it up.
and cross reference Grover Norquist and Holmes Tuttle.
2
I guess that there is an error in my retirement, I retired from working for that government as Senior Public Defender. That job required a BA or BS plus a law degree. After 30 years in public service, my PERS pension is roughly $5000 pert month. So, any storey claiming a lifeguard retired in California with a $100,000 pension is a lie.
2
“I asked my brother, ‘How do you feel about this pay raise?’” Ms. Moore recalled. “He said: ‘I want you to have it. You deserve it. But we don’t feel like we should pay for it.’”
“Well,” she said, “who do you want to pay for it?”
Uhh, hello? The 1 percent??? Who else has been getting a steady diet of lower tax rates - or just flat out elimination of taxes - for the last 30+ years now?
10
Government BAD. People who require government services BAD. Taxes BAD.
If you can't afford to go to a doctor it's YOUR fault.
If you can't afford to send your child to private school, it's YOUR fault.
Capitalism run amuck with the prosperity gospel preached to all who will hear it.
There are deserving people in America and the Undeserving. Let's focus on that and keep the people fuming at each other.
It's a win/lose world out here in America and the 1% have won. The rest of us lost because we are lazy, stupid or whatever.
If you keep the divisive hate rhetoric going for long enough people lose their focus.
9
I agree that in many states public employment has suffered. But, the authors should come visit California and they will get a different picture. If anything we have the opposite problem. A typical small town in California in a relatively low cost area will have the majority of city workers having a total compensation package in the six figures. And in my little town I walk by the City Hall almost every evening and all the lights are off at 5:30 PM and it is closed Friday-Sunday. Not one person was laid off in the Great Recession. The city jobs I am familiar with are much less demanding time wise and much more secure than those in the private sector (police work is the exception). And our safety workers retire as early as age 50 with 90% of pay for life (indexed for inflation) and non-safety workers retire at age 55 with 75% of pay for life. Both with full healthcare benefits for life as well. A typical firefighter in California retires with a $150,000 per year pension, tax payer guaranteed (zero market risk), after just 30 years of work.
This is now all public record. Take a random peek and see for yourself:
https://transparentcalifornia.com
7
"A report on 2017 state compensation in Oklahoma found that average salaries were 27 percent lower than for comparable jobs in the private sector."
I could have taken my two college degrees and worked in the private sector and made a lot more money. It's a trade-off! You want good teachers, roads that are safe, mental health services, someone to take care of your aging parent, a clerk who knows how to file?
Society has costs, and if we don't pay them, we all suffer.
5
Privatization is self-defeating for the middle class. Worst thing you could allow. WHO will ever have YOUR best interests at heart, if there is profit involved? You need government, by the PEOPLE, and you need to vote, and then oversee your representatives. Privatization is not the way to go.
5
Ms. Shala Marshall has a Master’s Degree, teach children, and supports a family on 28k/year.
FIX News Dear Leader “lovely daughter Ivanka” peddle made in China knockoff trashy rags, use the White House to get more licensing and branding, and collect over twenty million/year.
Something is very wrong with this picture.
To the millions of voters who voted for Trump: ask Ms. Marshall, Did he make America great again?
6
And this wasn’t the aim of the braggarts of corporate business. Government bad, government bad, government bad. Grifting businessmen woopee!
As Rodney Dangerfield said, I get no respect. And the country crumbles just like they want it to: business opportunity!
The more you brag the more you expose yourself to ridicule. You will spend a trillion dollars on armaments and blood, a trillion on law and order and what have you got. A dozen billionaires competing with each other for other people’s lives. A sickness in the land best described by WEB DuBois:
Land of the theif, home of the slave.
3
Seriously, the NYT cherry picks stories from states with some level of fiscal discipline, and wants us to cry for public employees?? Why doesn't the NYT do an article on the bloated pensions in Illinois that are bankrupting that state, or also in California where tax payers seemingly are working to fund exorbitant retirement benefits that no one in the private sector gets. Or perhaps, closer to home, the NYT might put an article together about either NYC or NY State and most of the Northeastern US, as to why taxes are so very high to support an overbloated public sector?? Hmmmm, I guess those "narratives" of left oriented states that are bankrupting themselves isn't something the Times wants to focuse on perhaps???
6
Amy Chua and others have promoted the idea of partisan rapprochement to bridge differences of opinion. Those of us trying to do so will find it easier if there is a belief that the other side is working equally hard in good faith:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/14/business/pension-finance-oregon.html
1
It would be more helpful if this article also reviewed the impact of pensions on this situation of public servant paid. For instance, how much of a school districts budget is spent on pensions for retired teachers?
My guess is that this problem with public servant pensions will get worse long before it gets better. I would like to know what fraction of a school district, or police department, or firefighting department, goes to pay pensions of retired workers versus what fraction is paying current worker. Would more teachers move from "low income" to "middle class" if they didn't have to carry the overhead of pensions for teachers no longer working?
With people living longer as well as public worker unions pushing for ever more generous pensions, we are now in a tough situation. Private companies had to face this over the past 20 years and either eliminated pensions for individual 4011K or else went bankrupt.
Those who view "a diminished public sector as vital to economic growth" are divorced from reality. It is not good for the country to have more and more people sinking into low-income jobs with no benefits. Businesses rely on people with more than subsistence income to buy their goods and services. Did the TEA party folks and the Republican party as a whole bother to think about that. We're rapidly becoming a Third World country with a gigantic low-income class and a few people at the top hoarding all the money.
7
Just what we need (snark) more money going to the top, more privilege to those who are already privileged. Of course the privileged do not have to worry about teachers, nor do they care about teachers. These teachers do not teach the rich kids and the rich and powerful are more interested in the dumbing down of America rather than the enrichment, be it monetary or intellectual, of it's people. Of course then we have the SCOTUS who says corporations are people so that they can dump more money into an already unequal situation. The treatment of public servants is degrading, so is the service to the public it's self, this is calculated and when the rich have no roads to travel on they will fly the rest of us will just suffer.
5
This article is mainly concerned with those workers who are employed directly by the government, but many government jobs have been privatized. This does not make things better for those seeking a middle class life style through service to others. These workers often displaced from the public sector also find themselves with low wages and benefits while being in direct competition with those remaining in government employ thus depressing wages further.
Let's face it. Our society no longer values service to others whether it is a highly trained teacher or nurse or competent street cleaner all of whom are held to strict account, but will never be paid adequately for their vital services.
8
Ah the twisted thinking of some voters. They will happily pay large corporations subsidies to move to their cities and create “good jobs”, while trashing the good public sector jobs that already exist. And that won’t be moved overseas at the whim of the investors. What is it about the American self-image that disparages the public sector?
10
This is just one more aspect of the United States gradual but inexorable transformation into a Third World nation. The abolition of the rule of law, the triumph of populism, the rise of ignorance, the over-sized role of religion, and the politicization and degradation of civil service are all symptoms that the US is distancing itself from the civilized world where it has its roots. A country can be scientifically and technologically sophisticated - this doesn`t make it a developed nation, as North Korea and other technologically advanced third-world countries clearly show.
8
I'd like to get a thank you from everybody on Medicare and Social Security, benefits funded in large part by the 20-40% everybody in a public pension program gives up out of their SSI to keep those systems solvent.
3
I think you are mistaken about the funding of Medicare and Social Security. The funding has been provided by those who currently and in future will receive funding assuming that those trying to steel funding such as current government employees such as Betsy DeVos who has stolen billions of dollars from low income Americans and is trying to minimize availability of education for current American children.
"Taxes are the price I pay for the benefits of civilization."
--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
It's amazing that among economically developed nations only in the United States do we want a high level of services but eschew taxing ourselves to pay for it. Nations in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, et. al., have problems of their own--but this is not one of them.
Of course, these nations also don't allow their elections and officeholders to be beholden to lobbyists and oligarchs, either. (Publicly funded elections, anyone?)
30
I think we should all realize that any entitlement program, be it public sector (or private sector) pensions or social security require periodic boosts to keep them solvent. We should accept tax increases to fund these should they prove necessary. Secondly, if we cannot agree on healthcare in general, we should at least agree to fund at least bare bones/ adequate health care for retirees 100% without any doughnut holes.
If we can agree what to fund without resorting to name-calling and "death-panel" accusations, it is amazing what we will be able to achieve.
You are right, people love to complain about the NHS in the UK but will vociferously protest if any attempts are made to dismantle it. We in the US are the exact opposite. The rare occasions when the political winds are favorable, we protest equally loudly for any legislation that provides stability and security to the average person citing specious "constitutional" arguments.
Retirement is not going to be pleasant for most of us, not least for our veterans, who in spite of all the pseudo-patriotic rhetoric from out politicians will suffer the lingering effects of our misadventures throughout their lives without adequate resources.
1
If governments manage the procurement process effectively, they will create a competitive process that privatizes work on terms that are favorable to the taxpayers. Doing so creates support by taxpayers that helps assure the work will continue to be funded.
2
Anti-taxes and anti-government in the US are symptoms of a national character that is as old as the republic. Politicians, especially Republicans, have successfully used the anti-taxes and anti-government sentiment to get elected. Additionally, public schools in the US, unlike in other countries, do not teach civic as a separate and required course of secondary school education. Thus, generation of Americans growing up just do not have an appreciation for civic duties like voting, civilized political discourse, paying taxes, community and social obligations. As the country becomes more polarized, the only local public sector that continue to receive public support and stable funding is law enforcement, which foreshadows the emergence of a police state.
4
Teachers are part of the public sector and if you look at New Jersey, New York and even Long Island, you will find teachers retiring on pensions upwards of $80,000 PLUS full medical benefits. In NJ, taxpayers pay $20,000+ in medical benefits to retired teachers and school bus drivers. NAEP and other recently released data from international math and science assessments indicate that U.S. students continue to rank around the middle of the pack, and behind many other advanced industrial nations. Uninformed blame Republicans for this too?
1
There been a long term trend in the U.S. where more and more of the profits in the overall economy go to capital investment (money making money) as the percentage of profits flowing to labor decreases.
This is but one factor causing the income disparities written about in this story. Privatizing govt services siphons off or redirects tax dollars to flow to corporate profits at the expense of the worker wages in order for stockholders to get the maximum return on their invested dollars. And enables CEO' s of those private services companies to make many multiples of what their previous counterparts in govt made both in salary and benefits.
The winners of privatization become the stockholders and the senior management teams. Not the rank and file workers nor (in many cases reported here) the citizens paying the tab.
As capital investment is commanding an ever larger percentage of the gains in productivity from the overall system then maybe we need to consider a more progressive capital gains tax structure that mirrors the progressive nature of the income tax rates for individuals. Or possibly just classify ALL sources of income as "income" and have the tax system treat all sources equally.
5
When Republicans made their anti-tax pledge they committed themselves to undermining public servants like teachers, public infrastructure like freeways, and any/all government services except the military. Instead of raising taxes on the wealthy who have been enriched, in part, by the public services they enjoy, Republicans lowered them. Corporations will not provide public services; there's no profit in it. The benefits of pubic servants and services flow throughout society instead of to one particular company. As long as the political party in control is branded by its anti-tax pledge, public services will suffer.
8
We heard "Make America Great Again" throughout the campaign. This slogan does not reflect the reality that the GOP puts forth. If the public is not served by workers who are adequately compensated how can anyone expect that society will run smoothly?
I was fortunate to teach in a state which ranks among the top of the nation when it comes to public education. Our salaries lagged from the mid 70s through the late 80s when our governor, a Republican in fact, realized that salaries must rise. I was very pleased with what I received in the last two decades of teaching. My pension is adequate as well although down the road, hopefully for me, much further down that road there will be problems because the state stopped contributing to the fund for many years.
I feel sorry for those in mostly Red States in which salaries are low. Taxes are also low and these states end up getting more money back from the Federal Government than they contribute. Ironically the leaders of those states say that they believe in "Small Government."
We are in for some troubled times ahead if the electorate does not wake up. Somehow I am not confident.
6
Every middle-class American who votes to "shrink government" and "cut taxes" needs to look at their own extended families, past and present. I guarantee they will find public school teachers and public college instructors, police and firefighters, career military and civilian military workers, postal workers, judges, courthouse clerks and probation officers, prison guards, road construction, water and sewer system workers, social workers, nurses in public hospitals and clinics, park rangers, government IT specialists, accountants, inspectors and regulators, scientists and engineers. That is not counting those employed by private contractors with government funding. It's time those anti-government, anti-tax voters confessed that they would not be "middle-class" today if their grandparents and parents and they themselves had not worked for "the government."
8
Untrammeled capitalism leads to very low wages, the encouragement of illegal immigration, no pensions, poor working conditions and excessive remuneration at the top. Untrammeled unionism, leads to unwarranted strikes and pay to workers who may not be worth it, leading to poor customer service.
In the best of times there is a balance where the dynamism of free enterprise coupled with decent provision for workers. This country, in particular, is well out of balance and I see no sign yet of things improving for many of the country's workers.
15
The degradation of public service is coming from the top. For decades Republicans have been heaping scorn on public service, and, as in everything else, the current occupant of the White House has raised this to an art form. Consequently, the State Department and other agencies have been emptied out, and our country is in peril because of it. At the state level, where the services are the ones that intersect directly with people's lives, the hollowing out is even more readily apparent.
When their house is on fire literally instead of figuratively, maybe people will understand. But I doubt it.
12
There's nothing to envy about working in the public sector. As has been proven, and is continuing to be evidenced at an alarming rate, having a pension means little to nothing because the funds seem to evaporate pretty quickly after money managers have mismanaged the funds and legislatures choose to solve the problem by changing the pension guidelines. Teachers' pensions do not rise out of the ashes of taxpayer funds—they have long been funded by the teachers themselves. A large portion of what looks like a decent salary goes directly into the pension fund. And I’d like to know what public sector job has a decent 401K match.
Anyone who thinks jobs that serve the public sector offer an enviable benefit package and job security might want to read the newspaper a bit more thoroughly. We are well on our way back to a Middle-Ages-mentality in which the only public served by anyone is the wealthy.
14
"Who do you wan't to pay for it?". I think I can answer that; Wall street, Silicon Valley, and other places that have obscene numbers of people with more cash than they could ever need.
They depend on a well-functioning society to be successful, so isn't it time they contributed to exactly that?
13
I live in Silicon Valley. Jonathon, I could not agree with you more. The problem is our politicians get their money from these groups-so they could care LESS about the average American. I keep shouting out that experienced, current, college-educated workers- are being gutted from Silicon Valley because of the misused visa program. It's just a simple screen for lower wages and offshore groups that pay for health care. We need to STOP supporting these companies.
Watch, 5 years from now, it will come as a SHOCK-a SHOCK that we have gutted these worker opportunities.
3
I think it’s obvious as more and more of our money migrates up to the top that we need a more steeply progressive tax structure at the federal level and that the states need to adopt progressive income tax laws. At the state level this may require some constitutional amendments. We need to follow the money, or we will continue falling behind in everything. This will require that our fellow members of the working and middle classes snap out of their Fox News, Rush Limbaugh induced slumber.
11
The hypocrisy of congress and local state governments around these issues is astounding. Paul Ryan is retiring and holding off until he can get the maximum federal pension, at age 48, all for not having worked for the last 8 years. Yet they all vote against public employee pensions and reasonable salaries for those who do the vital social infrastructure work in our country.
52
Maybe those underpaid public employees from the red states should move to blue states like New Jersey and New York, where public jobs come with platinum health insurance, generous pensions, guaranteed job protection (thanks to strong unions) and generous overtime pay.
7
You should have included the pay, benefits, hours, and pensions of public workers in California in this story. In many cases, they are amazingly good.
14
Pension envy is another of the things creating headwinds for those working in the public sector. They are about the last of the working stiffs with defined pensions, and it seems that many, especially fire fighters and cops, are able to start collecting it after a relatively short time. We also hear stories fairly often of people "spiking" those pensions and ending up collecting far more during retirement than they were paid while working.
6
I majored in Economics, Philosophy, and Spanish. I have a minor in International Studies. I have a MA in Political Science - International Relations. I was offered jobs in banking, jobs working for multinational corporations, jobs in the federal government, and jobs in education. I had lots of options...
I chose to be a teacher for three reasons:
1) It is the most important work one can do.
2) It is interesting and rewarding work.
3) I was willing to take a lower salary, in exchange for a good pension and benefits.
A good pension and stable benefits were described as part of my compensation, when I was hired. I could have made at least three times as much money in the private sector. If the pension and benefits were not part of the offer, I would have decided to build a different kind of career. There is no way that someone on a teacher's salary can save for retirement using a 401k. There is nothing left at the end of the month...
Teachers are underpaid. Teachers are not respected like professionals in other careers with similar levels of graduate training. Politicians are selling us out to the highest bidding Charter School, using flawed testing schemes to describe schools as failing, and they are deliberately underfunding our schools. There is a coordinated attack on tenure (which protects our academic freedom). There is a coordinated attack on unions (which fight for good working conditions in schools).
Why are politicians attacking teachers?
40
Why are politicians attacking teachers JLT?
That's easy.
An uneducated society doesn't evaluate politicians actions and election promises.
In other words, it leads to Trumpism.
2
Unfortunately, because the profession is unionized. As such, it garners no respect from one party because, well, Unions do not contribute towards electing its members.
Logical or not, "professional" and union member do not fit together in our perception.
I wish it were not so.
1
the results are already in. if we don't value public education, we get ignorance. surveys show a shocking number of millennials think the earth may be flat. America is in decline.
This breaks my heart.
I came upon this article moments ago, on the verge of retirement from a wonderful career as a professor and senior college administrator, and was thinking about the people whose shoulders I was able to stand on along the way.
I quickly thought of at least 30 brilliant scholars and wonderful professors who fueled my curiosity, but just as quickly landed firmly on three elementary and secondary school teachers and one children's librarian.
There was my sixth grade teacher, who knew nothing about ADHD but somehow knew that to flourish I'd have to learn while moving and have fun while doing it. And then there were my high school advanced placement teachers in English and U.S. history who taught their subjects with a rigor and infectious enthusiasm that was astounding. And, of course, the children's librarian, who -- when the day came -- solemnly escorted me from the children's to the adult section.
The continued neglect of these extraordinary public servants isn't just disgusting.
It's a form of collective social suicide for a country that I sometimes think only mouths core values about education, progress, and a vibrant future.
81
Betsy DeVos needs to be eliminated as Secretary of Education as soon as possible. She is obviously anti-education but strongly in favor of being able to steel from the poor.
1
More to the point will your college replace you -- or will adjuncts with limited benefits if any and low salaries be hired to replace you? Are your students pursuing their PhDs likely to get full-time jobs either in college or high school (if it's history you want to teach in HS the competition is fierce... and as pointed out benefits a lot less good than once upon a time.)
In 1990, the top marginal tax rate in Oklahoma was 7%, paid by married couples with incomes above $21,000 and singles with incomes above $10,000. Today it is 5%, paid by married couples with incomes above $12,200 and singles with incomes of $7,200. That means that if your income is at the federal poverty level, you pay the same marginal tax rate as Harold Hamm, whose net worth is $18.7 billion. The rate cuts have decimated state budgets, but the long-established regressive rate structure has made this state one of the most unfair societies in the country.
37
Ockham, adjusted gross income is not the same as net worth. Mr. Hamm might have lots of assets but his adjusted gross income could be very low. I am getting used to this adjusted gross income thing now. It is all about dodging taxes for the wealthy and the poor and everyone in between.
3
Conley pettimore, I know the difference between AGI and net worth, and so of course you are correct. However, Forbes estimated his annual compensation at $5.5 million, of which $1.2 million was salary, and the balance stock and paid amenities. Even at this reduced figure, the fact that Hamm, with a salary of 167 times the threshold for the highest marginal rate, pays the same rate as the poor is an abomination. And as for dodging taxes, I consider the legal bribery Hamm and his ilk engage in to secure that unfair status to be much more egregious than a schoolteacher's failure to declare $20 for side jobs.
2
I think fundamentally the problem is that private sector workers have been squeezed so much for so long that they have started to resent the public workers, who frequently have more job security, better benefits, and pensions. This resentment is working its way through the political system and manifesting itself in public policy.
50
Roger
What you say is true, sadly.
But let's be clear, here. This "squeezing" and resentment are not accidents or by-products of some force of economic nature. They are creations of a wealthy and powerful class of people who have made today's America the most economically unequal society in modern history.
These rich fools are eating their seed corn, they know it all too well, and they don't give a good gosh darn.
They are laying the foundations for decades of turmoil and unrest, and they feel invincible enough to withstand whatever desperate Americans ultimately throw at them. At a reasonable cost, of course.
2
What you say may be true in Wisconsin and nearby states, but it isn’t true in southern and southwestern states, where private sector workers have, on average, long done better financially than public sector workers.
Roger, you are correct: public-sector workers are envied for our benefits, especially our pensions.
BUT this resentment is fueled by the Right's campaign to create a climate to eventually eliminate public-worker benefits. Don't forget that only in the public sector are unions still strong. Benefits are less unrealistic (and as a problem, more solvable) than the outrageous salaries of corporate executives.
The issue is not the purported greed of public employees but the refusal and/or difficulty of private-sector workers to fight for similar benefits for themselves. Inspiration, not resentment, might be their response to the benefits earned by their public-sector brethren, were it not for the efforts of the Right. Thank you.
1
The headline is very misleading; occupational categories have fixed socioeconomic positions depending upon skills, education and status. Thus, for example, teachers are always white collar (middle class) while refuse collectors are always working class (manual). Social class classifications do not change simply if occupational sectors gain or lose income.
2
Hmm.
We can talk about white-collar v. blue collar, or those who do more office/intellectual work v. those who do manual labor, but I would argue that one's social class has more to do with income and wealth accumulation.
While higher education is also a factor in social class (as is inherited wealth) manufacturing jobs (not public sector, just an example) since at least the New Deal have generally been understood to be solidly middle class work.
Maybe those staunch Trump and Republican party supporters will wake up and vote accordingly during the mid-term elections. There's nothing like the power of the ballot box to initiate change.
6
Just one more data point in the plutocracy that is the US. Not sustainable, and more indication of the demise of the United States to please the 1%, with their very perverse hunger for more money, even if it can't do them any good. They will be harmed in the long run too. This is a failing country.
20
The walkouts by public sector workers in demand of pay increases has to be borne by the private sector that has had it's ability to unionize decimated. Private sector unions are at 7% and falling. My own private sector union is dying a death by a thousand cuts. The pay of the private sector falls or stagnates, while the public sector demands an increase. This is a problem. If taxes aren't raised on the top income earners, then I don't see a solution.
9
The current situation started with Pres Reagan and his famous quote saying to the effect: "Government is the problem and not the solution."
Once that notion became common wisdom, it took 30 years to get where we now have problems like those in the article.
Its ironic how people think government spending is wasteful...until they need the services.
13
Would these be the very same “public servants” — aka, government employees — whose taxpayer-funded pensions and healthcare costs are robbing cities and states of the money they need to pay for infrastructure, services, and even new employees?
2
Cities and states don't have money for infrastructure etc because they have lowered taxes on corporations (all in the name of job growth) to the point that they contribute next to nothing to state coffers. Individuals are now funding the states and all the services - teachers, police, firefighters, EMS, sanitation AND infrastructure. Before you throw the humans under the bus for wanting a living wage, take a look at your state's tax structure. I bet it's a tad unfair...
5
Florida has no state income tax.
1
Beggar thy neighbor emotion has been exploited by right to denigrate public sector employees and the reasonable benefits they receive after a long or life time of service. Unfortunately private sector employees have no pension, meager 401k matches and no retiree health care and instead of demanding better benefits, as voters we have allowed our the base emotions to be exploited by voters into cutting taxes and hurting the general public well being.
That said there are places where public sector pensions and benefits are being abused. Look at MA state police scandals. There are hundreds of MA state police making $300k+/year due to overtime abuse and work hour cheating and they are assured of gold plated pensions and benefits based on that inflated pay. Pension spiking is a very well known abuse. How can a progressive society value teachers so much lower than police. So even in public sector there is top 10% who have been rewarded and there is an opportunity to level play the benefits with all public sector employees.
6
Part of an all-out assault by the well-off and the brain-washed onto what remains of the public Commons, they want to privatize everything that has "public" before it--what ever brings us together in healthy shared community, which must be always outside of the confines of the profit making machine.
15
Public services and how to fund them is one of the most important matters confronting our country over the coming decades. Some of the consequences, such as the sorry state of public education in some states are already manifest.
This is a subject worthy of digging deeper by the NYT. It requires data and analysis not just individual stories.
For example, the mean avg of state government workers ~2013 was ~$53k annually while the mean avg of local government workers was ~$47k. During the same time frame, the mean avg of all other industries was ~$45k. As the authors suggest, comparable private sector jobs, especially in the professional and mgt levels typically pay higher salaries than in public sector. On the other hand, public servants typically have much more generous pension, health and other benefits. Also, it is almost impossible to fire a public services employee for anything.
The elephant in the room are pensions, where pubic service employees in many job categories (military, police, and others) can retire after only 20 years, take on a new public sector job and secure additional pension benefits. This is unaffordable.
I am all for teachers getting an upper middle class compensation plan; an assertion I make that is fact-free. On the other hand, I'd like to see public pensions and benefits more like the private sector.
The NYT can do us all a great service to dedicate a year long conversation to this subject.
5
Public sector unions get stabbed in the back by supposedly friendly Democratic politicians, with nowhere to go. New York State employee unions backed Governor Cuomo for re-election, despite his first term furloughs and threats of layoffs, claiming a budget crisis, in what many saw as a fop to right wing voters for a future presidential bid. Pension plans were dramatically scaled back for new workers, health benefits were reduced. Nonetheless, feckless Union officials dared not even talk to Cuomo's Democratic primary opponent, outsider Zephyr Teachout, let alone the Republican Rob Astorino. It's not surprising to read of dire conditions in "less generous" States in the rest of the country.
3
‘I want you to have it. You deserve it. But we don’t feel like we should pay for it.’”
“Well,” she said, “who do you want to pay for it?”
I can answer that. Like the rest of low-tax red-state dwellers, he wants those of us in blue states to subsidize him and his local economy through our federal taxes. I, for one, am sick of seeing my money go to fund a bunch of free-loaders in Oklahoma who can’t be bothered to due their civic duty and pay an appropriate amount of taxes.
11
We don't pay teachers enough. But within our school system, administrators that made out like bandits, literally. Our district went through serious corruption scandal with issues of nepotism being part, but not the most significant activity. The superintendent was indicted along with high level administrators: contracts grifting, but also hiring practices. Imagine the new elementary school counselor, with the diploma mill masters making 68K in a high testing Blue Ribbon National School of Excellence where half the parents are doctors, lawyers, professors, execs living in million $ homes down the street...meaning while there were a few real issues to respond to for a small group of students, the rest of the job was coordinating "character lessons," the health fair etc. But she was from the right sorority of the preferred legacy college. This is a midsize very affordable city. Teachers make nowhere near that starting. She made almost as much as the veteran principle near retirement. When the indictments came down, she left. The bloated superintendent office received the close audit long overdue and much staff was trimmed, albeit through process of early buy-out retirement and shifting off-site. Unseemly.
Public sector jobs are one of the few places where long term commitment means a pension and decent retirement benefits. Salaries have been starved for years but retirement benefits & job security are still appealing in the current right to work, low or no benefits job market.
7
This article uses the experience of Southern government workers and extrapolates it to the entire country. This simply does not work. Living in New Jersey, we have an entirely different situation, as do other Northeast states. Here we have a bloated state government, no way to get rid of poor performers, and healthcare and pension costs that are impossible to fund. We are in a situation in New Jersey where we provide higher salaries than comparable private sector work, better healthcare (my local school district spends 20% of its budget on healthcare), a pension, and essentially lifetime job security. This is no longer sustainable.
Look to New York as well. The Times recently published a report that detailed the waste and abuse that occurs in the MTA. Easily 15,000 employees could be let go with no discernable change in service. Not to mention the $100 million per mile it would cost to repair the subway.
In the Northeast, two components of public sector employment need to change - benefits and inability to fire. On the benefits side, we have bloated pensions driven by rules that provide incentives for people to retire with full benefits below age 50 and healthcare costs that are impossible to manage. That structure needs an overhaul.
As to the inability to fire, having the ability to fire someone beyond for cause will allow our government to become more efficient, will improve the perception of government workers and should also improve morale.
4
This is what happens when you cut taxes and demand "small government", yet so many of the people who are being hurt the most by these policies continue to vote republican!
8
I am a public school teacher in a county in MD whose CEO (superintendent) just gave his cronies a raise between 20%-36%, while saying no to a measly 4% teacher pay increase. We have a union in our county and yet they can do this to us.
8
Maybe it's time to question what your union dues are buying you?
1
civilized countries with a healthy middle class have a 20-30% unionized workforce, strong public education, and universal healthcare. America has now only 7% unionized labor. it's just a country in decline. if we spent less time yapping about being the greatest country in the world, and more time absorbing facts, we could recover. but there are no indicators this will happen. the data don't support it. and yes data, is plural.
What people do not realize, and what the Democratic party has been unable to communicate to voters, is that there is just as much cost to a lack of public services as there is to having them.
Don't want to pay for road repair? Be prepared to buy more tires and get your car fixed when it lands in a deep pot hole, or be constantly late to work because of inadequate bridges and roads.
Don't want adequate schools? Deal with an ignorant population that cannot make sensible decisions, compete with other countries for jobs, or even manage to survive in our modern technological world.
Don't want public mental health care for all? Deal with the homeless mentally ill defecating on your front porch, or shooting you at Waffle House.
What sort of a country do you want?
35
The Democratic Party couldn't convey a simple hello. My dog could devise better messaging for them. A gurgling fountain could communicate better.
pretty much why we didn't start a family.
1
Americans tend to be willfully blind and ignorant when it comes to who, exactly, should pay, and at what rate they should pay, for public services. Should, for example, someone who makes a lot of money pay a greater percentage of their income towards the provision of an education for the children of all the citizens in the community? The capitalist (i.e. Republican) response is: No Way! Why should I pay one cent more for little Billy's teacher than that lowlife family across the tracks pays? Why, they probably don't pay any taxes at all! (Which, of course, is a self-serving self delusion.) The socialist view is: Of course. On moral, humanitarian, philosophical democratic grounds, the latter response is a given. The wealthy are getting an unwarranted bargain while the poor bear an unbearable financial burden. It is the sense, and the actual fact, of unfairness, on the part of both perspectives that have brought us to this pass.
In order for a population of this size to flourish in a society this complex, everyone must contribute something. If you have more, expect to contribute more, both in absolute and relative terms. It is the price you pay for being able to be wealthy. You have more and you expect society to provide for the law enforcement, property protection services, life-saving and prolonging services that let you keep and enjoy you good fortune, but you don't want to pay, even proportionately, more for those services than your kid's teacher pays.
8
Unaffordable public servants who retire in their early 50s with generous pension packages, paid by the hard working tax payers.
1
Guess few commenting or the writer is from N.J. where exactly the opposite seems to be true. As the unions are very strong here, and the pay scales, benefits & early retirements are exorbitant.
Having read just a few of the comments, and reading the articles about the shrinking middle class, I can't help but feel that the entire country has been drinking an unspecified cocktail that has left our brains unable to function properly. The idea that citizens co not understand why paying taxes is essential for a well functioning economy leaves me dumb founded The increasing gap between the super wealthy and the rest of us is unconscionable. Where is there a will to address the ever increasing problems we are now mired in? I have never felt this despairing of this country's dysfunction. My list of issues to care about is now way too long. If we don't get honest and humane leadership, I fear for my grandchildren.
9
Please stop the luddite blaming of automation/productivity for the loss of middle class wages in manufacturing. The NYTs never mentions "the China price" but surely someone there has heard of it.
And are all your writers really shocked...shocked that as good-paying jobs disappear in industries that face cheap imports low wage workers come to resent those still getting decent wages in industries that do not face cheap imports like teachers, postal workers, cops, etc?
Your readers understand the constraints of your advertising dependence on global banks and corporations but at least find a new way to spin it.
2
This article is quite unbelievable. Salaries of about $50K are more than adequate in low cost markets like Oklahoma. And what's with the nonsense of giving the reader Marshall's "adjusted gross income" rather than her salary? Makes for a better sob story?
4
Relax. The wall will fix everything.
2
I HIGHLY recommend the following new book which explains succinctly not only why public servants today are treated as they are, but where the trillions upon trillions of dollars in this country go: Read it--"The New Human Rights Movement" by Peter Joseph. There is no reason why poverty, charity, and such low public servant pay needs to exist in the world today when there is PLENTY of money out there--it is being sucked out of the pockets of the middle class by our own government which has become a business interest uninvolved in helping "the people" and the health of the planet, existing to enrich itself as a class apart from the majority of the people. We need to WAKE UP and see that our economic system is historically based on Competition, Scarcity, and Dominance--unsustainable--and begin to dismantle it. All of this suffering is manufactured, and we need to see how we participate in our own manipulation. I have hope and pray every day that humanity will live in Equality, Peace, and Friendship.
5
With the best pension plans, health benefits, unionized workforce and working hours of pretty much any set of professions, the "public servants" should look to their benefits. With the exception of teachers, the other public servants have it good - at our expense. And it's not like they need qualifications from the best universities, either. Oh, and they cannot be fired for gross incompetence.
122
Chris - I don't what know what you mean by the best. If you are making peanuts, you aren't going to have a great pension. Perhaps you mean those with any pension plan, any health benefits, any working hours. Perhaps you mean anyone with a job, including these public servants, should count his or her lucky stars. Why shouldn't someone who has a master's degree and many years of experience expect those benefits and a commensurate salary? The value of their education and experience alone should be worth those benefits. This is the point of the article - that the public sector depends on these highly skilled workers and pays them bupkis. By the way, most teachers I know have a summer job (or two or three). They aren't lounging by the pool.
62
Actually, many of us do have qualifications from the best universities. I am in public service to make the world a better place, and to some degree that compensates for my lower salary. On the other hand the undeserved vitriol and dismissiveness from people on the right, make working for the public not much of a joy. Since social media came to the scene, trolls regularly bash the public sector employees in a knee jerk repetition of the latest smear campaign on Fox "news" It seems to me that critics like this don't want government until their house is on fire, or they buy a defective product, or they want their neighbor to be fined for dumping old cars in their back yard.
And by the way, anyone can be fired for gross incompetence.
762
Where to start?? So much "fake news" in this post. And NYT gives it the golden pick? It is completely, 100% false that a public sector worker cannot be fired. I'm one, and I've seen people lose jobs because they were not performing. The ONLY thing a union does it provide that people can be fired when management follows a due process.
64
When did we get elevated to middle class? I always thought of myself as blue collar with a master's degree.
3
I've long said we should stop using the phrase "tax cut" and replace it with the more accurate "service cut." Less tax revenue means less tax-funded services. While this is fine and dandy with the wealthy who believe (short-sightedly) that tax-funded services just coddle the lazy, far too many working people have been hood-winked into thinking a "tax cut" will make them richer. When your kid's public college becomes un-affordable and your street is full of pot holes and you have to rely on volunteer firefighters who aren't always available or nearby and you can't afford child care and you lose your health insurance...you'll see how far that $100 "tax cut" gets you.
9
Understood that a variety of jobs do not adequately support workers. But I had to chuckle when the author coupled "rat exterminators" and "mental health counselors" as jobs that do not pay enough to be considered middle class. It's true, but just kind of humorous, that those two important jobs be considered in a category. Mental health workers usually have advanced degrees. I don't believe that rats need to talk to the workers trained to kill them.
5
Public servants protect our land and natural resources, help all including those who would not receive help otherwise, provide important social and medical services, run free programs in sectors from education to culture-- and are barely paid a living wage. Meanwhile, financiers and real estate tycoons take in millions annually, much more than any one person or family needs, just because they 'add value'-- monetary value-- to people and corporations who don't need it. The value of maintaining our earth, of taking care of people, of educating, of providing health care, of coming to put out fires in our homes (literally), of providing access to art and culture, is worth so much more than this. And the people that dedicate our lives to public service know we are not doing it for pay, but to help people and improve the world. No one is requesting million dollar payouts, rather just to be able to live while working. But our system is deeply, deeply broken. Reaganomics are rampant, the economic structure is as skewed as it was before the Great Depression, and there is a new class of gilded age millionaires, hiding their money in tax shelters and taking luxury vacations while the rest of us provide the services they too rely on. Sad.
8
I used to work at a private organization in NYC that serves developmentally disabled adults. Service for developmentally disabled adults was famously pushed toward privatization after an expose by Geraldo Rivera of Willowbrook, a state-run facility that was underfunded and which resulted in horrendously abusive conditions.
The resulting de-institutionalization of people who suffer from mental illness and developmental disabilities has overall been a good thing, but the privatization has been a mixed bag. For example, the president of the private organization I worked at was finally forced out after pressure from outside groups over his million dollar paycheck and numerous perks, including the organization buying his daughter a condo in mid-town Manhattan, etc. He was able to steal all this taxpayer (medicaid) money due to the private structure of the business, and meanwhile, staff did not get paid a living wage.
We can do better. We can better fund our public institutions and they need oversight. Willowbrook (above mentioned state institution) suffered mostly from lack of resources and nobody effectively (and regularly) drew attention to its failures. The idea that private institutions are more efficient is an American myth. Indeed, the auditing and oversight of private institutions is better than it is for public institutions (the state doesn't always watch over itself well). These are surmountable problems though.
5
I am past it. I once made too much money. It did not help. I still got old and pretty much useless. Another friend died, yesterday. Earth is a fine plce to worry, if you must. Many must. You are not alone. Neither am I. Just lonely,at t
4
I began to get angry at the right-wing childishness on display here, and then I ran into the repeated bellow that the private sector was more efficient and productive and started laughing.
11
Even with the relatively low cost of living in Indiana, I can't imagine how a DMV clerk lives on less than $30,000. Certainly can't have a family or live where there is a good school system on that kind of pay.
4
Name--We should pay the lower pay government employees enough to live on. But, maybe we need to pay the higher ups less.
2
Amazing what the myth of "money" will do. The continuing education of of the globe is complete. Now it is simply niches and survival. Where are the voids and that is where education will travel. The rest of the world is unwilling to learn.
2
Adjusted gross income? what the heck ? As our taxes get higher the "adjusted gross income falls" but the purpose of the article seems to raise taxes, thereby lowering my adjusted gross income to about half of what I actually make. I thought socialism was good and and took lots from people so,that those on the lower end could have plenty? And don't tell me that socialist governments tax the wealthy at a higher rate. Wealthy people control all forms of government and socialists are no more worried about poor people than capitalists or communists.
Adjusted gross income? I still cannot get past that one.
2
Privatization is a scam which outlived any usefullness it ever had decades ago. I much prefer having my governmental work and services provided by government employees. Believe it or not, there’s also more accountability that way, because these private interests are given all the immunities of the government and they never have to run for office.
11
In the U.S., teachers and people who work in education have never been compensated well enough for all of their work which is crucial for building a strong and educated population. It is sad, and this article reinforces this fact.
2
Public servants have been posited by the right, and to some degree by the left, as public enemies. They are lazy, unmotivated by capitalist incentive, and gladly eat your tax dollars. Lobbyist have been able to make a fortune exploiting this widespread belief helping private companies make bank for their shareholders in everything from prisons to schools to waste treatment and management to private military contracts. As a result, public policy has been hijacked by a handful at the majority's expense on several levels.
15
I wonder if the Democratic party will catch a clue and start representing the interest of the voters over the moneyed interests that have been bank rolling them since Bill's time in office.
Votes > Dollar$
7
Reply to an earlier commenter, 'There' from 'Here 40 minutes ago,' who stated:
"(Most) Government jobs are not particularly difficult or require a terrible amount of training. These jobs have been commoditized and the pay reflects that. People tend to overestimate their worth on the free market."
People often underestimate the difficulty of the work of others. Try working a shift at McDonalds during the lunch rush. You may be less likely to use 'do you want fries with that' as a pejorative quip about those you perceive to be beneath you.
I assume there are no teachers in your family. At least none that are speaking to you.
25
The problem is that individual income taxes on the upper middle class are far too high. Couples earning $150,000 to $300,000 combined are taxed excessively (up to 40% when you factor in some state's income tax), while those making $2,000,000 and above have all kinds of tax havens. The result is that the upper middle class, who of course look wealthy in comparison to many hardworking people like the woman in this story, still face an unfair tax system. It is not those making $200,000 a year who should be footing the bills for all public services, so they resist. The result is the upper middle class trying desperately to ward off more taxation, and the middle and working class suffering the fall-out. Unless we get a system where corporate taxes are fair (rather than giving corporations massive tax breaks to get them to move into certain cities), a system where fake non-profits like mega churches are no longer allowed to be parasites, and where the 1% has to pay a fair tax rate, the situation will grow worse.
9
Could you please change the headline to: HAS LOST their foothold? It was losing 20 years ago when I left the civil service. Now it is stunning how bad off teachers and government workers are in some states. It is shameful.
7
Can't support a family on $28k? No kidding. Due to the ridiculous cost of rent, I can't support a small family on $50k! Feudalism is alive and well.
12
Thank you for pointing out the gradual decline in public sector job compensation, and the net negative effect that has had on those who take those jobs, and on the services they are able to provide. But, in discussing the reasons for the decline, I think you have given short shrift to the causes that effected the change. In particular, Republican policies have been purposefully designed for exactly this, destroying public sector and the services it provides. Failing to point this out is not politically neutral, or fair and balanced. The Republican party and their rich donors have worked for years to bring about the changes described in the article. They were aware of the unpopularity of the program the whole time, and so needed a strategy that would allow them to find support for the program. What they came up with were emotional off topic appeals that would distract voters from the effects of their economic policy. They used abortion, religion, and racist paranoia to manipulate enough of the people into supporting them, and used "messaging" to make the economic side of the platform seem more palatable. Tax cuts, right to work, privatisation, entitlement reform; the list is exhaustive. They lie about everything. When you, the supposedly unbiased press, does not connect the dots, you are not doing your job. Let them complain that it is unfair if they want to, but the truth is the truth.
9
Exactly.
“He said he ‘worried that talented workers will opt for the private sector.’”
And that says it all folks. When a public sector employee, who’s sympathetic to the public sector, and who wants more pay, and is being quoted to make a case for the public sector admits this, it reveals how big the challenge is and how much harder it’s going to get.
If the talent is in the private sector (and it mostly is - who denies this?), citizens aren’t going to want to fork over large sums of money to watch the C-team bumble around with it as they waste it, while trying to push the fiction that they’re somehow essential.
Take the police for instance. On a good day, I might have some dolt with a GED pull me over for going 10 mph over or harass some neighborhood kids for smoking weed, despite the recent decriminalization in my town. On a bad day, they might get trigger happy and shoot and kill someone who’s completely innocent.
Why should I pay for any of this? I have great home security, awesome cameras, my own firearm, and a network of neighbors who work to keep our neighborhood safe and our home values high. If all of this fails, I could maybe file a report with a cop, but even in cases where I’ve been hit it seemed like my insurance firm was far more helpful than the cops.
Where’s the talent? It’s with the security firm, the makers of the cameras, my neighbors, at my insurance firm. And yet, the money I pay to my local government in taxes exceeds it all. It’s ridiculous.
1
Slow down, stop speeding and putting others in danger and I suspect you will not get pulled over for speeding again. Problem solved!
You can always be grateful to the municipal water employees who ensure you don’t die of cholera.
Prisons cost too much. They should be outsourced to Mexico.
2
I bet the servants are still voting Republican.
Matthew 15:14
Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch
3
Which side are you on?
2
I have a cousin who is a special agent with the DEA. I guarantee you that he does not think of himself as a public servant. At the age of twenty six, this bozo declared himself to be "set for life" and he constantly brags about his number of vacation days and various other perks he gets as part of his job. In addition, he and his entire family vote Republican.
I would not feel sorry if this mouth was knocked down a few pegs.
3
This happened over and over again when I was employed in NC. Many years of no raise or minimal raises, or a one-time bonus (so that the raises didn't compound). This became even worse when the Republicans took over and decided they would cut income taxes. NC now has something around the 4th worst paid teachers in the US. The tax cuts involved a pittance each month—roughly 20 bucks. But for public school teachers in particular, that pittance, combined, added up to a lot in supporting their salaries.
And there was (and still is) health care, which the Republicans would like to take away from retirees (though it was a contractual condition of working to become vested), along with 401as in place of a state pension. In health care NC places more and more of the burden on employees in the form of copays and premiums. NC is, of course, a "right-to-work" state, meaning you give up the right to a raise and, for lower level employees, you give up a living wage for a family of 4.
4
I public service lawyer in Illinois, like a prosecutor or assistant attorney general, makes 10-15k LESS than public sector teachers even. The non-union public sector workers are pawns in a political roulette.
The Republican bashing here is predictable. On April 14, the Times ran an article about the Oregon public employees' pension system, noting that a former public university president receives a pension of $76,111---a month. While not the usual award, similarly generous awards were not total outliers. The article noted pension problems in New Jersey and Connecticut as well. In my own state, many former public employees do quite well under CALPERS, thank you.
You know what Oregon, New Jersey, Connecticut and California have in common? They are the bluest of blue states. And the management/white collar public employee does very well there. The article implies that low income workers in Oklahoma who vote Republican do not know where their own financial interest lies. In Oregon and California, management/white collar public employees know very well with which party their financial interest lies.
3
Depends on the state. Here in Connecticut, State workers are bankrupting the state. Not all but many are working insane OT that is added to the pension. Social Workers and LPN's earning 100K - 160K a year in OT. This is all public record. The Massachusetts State Police had 30 Officers claiming Overtime they never worked. 10 retired immediately and the other 20 are being looked at. The tax paying public is fed up. How do Mass. State Troopers make 360K a year? How do Connecticut State LPNS make 248K a year.
4
I work with private and public employee peers at a small community college. Public union employees are paid above the building average, and are not motivated by normal ways to do the job as best you can, and help their groups and their organization succeed. Many are like ghosts, and a burden to managers who fear the stigma of getting them assigned out. Around New York, public employees earn a good living, but dont distinguish themselves at work. Only in retirement do they distinguish themselves. Taxes here are obscene compared to other states. So its insulting to see a newspaper plea for sympathy for government workers. When Trump is re-elected in a few years, thank overpaid, underworked and somehow aggrieved people who are only good enough for government work.
4
And by what metric and via what expertise are you making your presumptuous assumptions about these educators?
It’s comments like yours that are ruining this nation!
2
When I hear stories like this, I am amazed at all the reaseach and careful observation the commenter must have undertaken to know these "facts" about public employees in NY. And yes, that is entirely in jest. This kind of comment is driven by its conclusion, namely that someone else is making more money than the author, and not only must they not deserve it, they must be put down as malingerers and deadwood. It's ridiculous. DavoS can no more have a true picture of public employment in New York than I can have of life on a major league baseball team. Why do people insist on pretending they know things they cannot possibly know?
1
What does Trump's election or future electability have to do with NYS CSEA democrats? Btw, Westchester County DSS workers are so understaffed by a never ending entitlement receiving population growth, and cutbacks/retired worker never being replaced by (corrupt) former Republican Cnty CEO, they work OT WITHOUT pay. 6 years without a union contract.
1
FDR created the middle classes and Republicans have been slowly killing it with death by a thousand cuts. Time to either restore unions or create a more equitable nation where children, education, food and housing security come first. A third world economy creates poverty by increasing debt. Economics 101= the more debt, the greater the wealth.
9
"A third world economy creates poverty by increasing debt. Economics 101= the more debt, the greater the wealth."
Something backwards here?
My mother was a non-academic employee at the local State college branch; one of the job benefits was drastically reduced tuition (a few hundred $ per semester, 40-odd years ago) for her dependents anywhere in the State system. That was the only way all 4 of us offspring could have afforded higher education. Two went on to advanced degrees. Seems to me this was a more valuable, economical and forward-looking benefit than just a larger, maybe unsupportable, pension; should be brought back.
3
How can public employees justify getting paid a pension for longer period of time than they actually worked for? People are living longer now, and retiring at 55 or after 25 years of service and having a pension for another 40+ years is not fair (the policemen and firefighters are not included in this criticism).
4
Why don't you include policemen and firefighters? Because you think that they risk their lives and should be treated differently from other public servants? What about teachers who are now being asked to protect kids?
It's not a question of public employees being justified getting a pension for 40+ years. Everybody deserves it in a prosperous country. If somebody takes social security when they are first eligible they can draw it for close to as many years. And if a teacher has a low salary throughout their career, their pension amounts to even less.
Most public servants get locked into their pension plans and are excluded from social security. And public plans are facing similar pressures, decreasing benefits or making people wait for longer to the extent that myth of padded benefits is a distant memory especially for those who are starting off in the public sector today.
This country is quickly becoming full of shiny new buildings with desperately poor people working in them. Rather than pull people down, we should raise our voice for social security and health benefits to be beefed up as well agreeing to tax increases as needed. Let us not buy into the false economics and narratives peddled by the snake oil salesmen.
2
You must be longing to see more homeless elderly. These people aren't paid enough to live on, much less save for retirement.
2
Why are policemen and firemen exempt? Why are they special?
The trump Corporate Welfare Bill just passed into law gives almost everyone more “free” money. The problem is almost ALL goes to those that don’t need it all that much. Is this a insidious plan, so when deficits are too large, the social programs are cut? Maybe. It’s a dangerous world out there, but don’t see Congress drastically cutting military spending. Oh no. Like the song goes, “big money’s got no soul”. That’s Rush by the way
3
Ike's warning about the "military/industrial complex" still applies.
Not likely to change until voters revolt but they are manipulated with fear for their lives.
1
The same has/is happening in the UK. In addition, politicians from the right (although not exclusively), are disparaging of Public Sector workers in general.
It is part of the Neo-Liberal mantra for decades backed up by the vitriol of the Corporate press.
Most public sector workers employed by National Government (Civil Servants) have not had a salary increase for 9 (nine) years.
7
I think many of the public sector unions needed to be significantly overhauled. In NYC you have unqualified or problematic teachers who get paid to sit in the "rubber room" because they can't be fired. I also think that public sector should be switched to a 401K style retirement plan. The defined benefit plans are often way too generous and subject to abuse - read about the large numbers of of LIRR employees who go out on 100% disability. Many of these folks would never have earned nearly as much in the private sector ( if they could find work at all) - the idea that they are sacrificing to work for the government is simply not true anymore ( if it ever was?). I think the head of the TVA makes like 7 million dollars a year! It's gotten to the point where the private sector exists to support the public sector, especially in retirement while the non-unionized private sector struggles to obtain a semblance of economic security. Politicians are buying votes by agreeing to overly generous union pay and benefits - an overhaul is long overdue because the current path is unsustainable.
3
The GOPs plans to reduce taxes on the wealthiest — those in the top bracket of property tax and corporate tax has left nothing but a path of destruction in its wake. Cities short two thousand police officers, for the sake of letting the already rich become more rich? Teachers supposed to live on a $28,000 salary or $538 a week gross. I can’t think of one single positive thing that has ever come out of reducing taxes on the rich, and I challenge anyone to come up with even one.
This is the GOPs America. The rich getting richer, much of the country falling apart, from crumbling infrastructure to the destruction of the middle class. Life in America is supposed to get better, but I say the Midwest I grew up in seemed a lot better off 40 years ago.
29
If the people in the public sector think they have it rough try coming over to the other side. I am a contractor. No paid time off. No pension, no 401K match, no guarantee of a job tomorrow. I would love to have your pension, your health insurance and the fact that you will probably never be fired. I can be fired later this afternoon for no reason. You gotta love the private sector. You could have it MUCH worse.
17
They retire young with all these benefits too. Healthcare forever. Pension.
1
Sorry Anita - Richmond - The public sector jobs do not and never have provided the benefits and wages that you believe offer security and a standard of living that is not attainable and not without any risk. Public sector employees are routinely laid off and the benefits are not nearly as generous as you believe. Furthermore the high level requirements of professionalism, licensing, education and testing that must be attained and maintained demand continuous education, training and even personal expense. The institutions and organization demand not only just a bachelor's or master's degree but much more in demands for post-graduate work too. Engineers, computer administrators, law clerks, teachers, scientists, patent attorneys, criminal attorneys and prosecutors, judges, health care professionals and myriads of inspectors and accountants and others must have a substantial investment in their public jobs and careers. It is not a cake walk for public sector employees. Yes, they could have it worse. Republicans could cut budgets and benefits and wages even further. See how long it is before more infrastructure fails and you're standard of living goes down the drain. Then we'll all have it worse. There is risk and responsibility in all jobs. Nothing is easy.
3
Who are you talking about? Most public employees can not afford to retire early, pay high rates for insurance if they haven’t reached Medicare age yet, and get about half their former salary in a pension. There are exceptions, but they are...exceptions.
2
The decline of America goes hand-in-hand with the decline in the public sector.
"Make The Public Sector Great Again" is one of the many things we need to do to steer our country back in the right direction. And this means increasing support of, and appreciation for, entities such as the FBI, CBO, VA, HUD, HHS, EPA, and, yes, the IRS.
10
NO "public servants" should get any benefits other than what the rest of us do; that is, Social Security, and the opportunity for medical insurance. I understand that a step towards single payer (MediCare for all) is being made, and I am for that.
And by all means, please quit if you dont want the job, or it doesn't pay right, or you are not given proper resources to do the work. Forcing change is always good.
3
This is the voice of the old fallacy. Don’t try to make it better for everyone, envy and try to tear down what others have. That’s one way the rich have to divide people who should be allies against them.
3
Attacks on public workers fit into a larger picture of attacks by capital on labor. Industrial workers, public workers, young college graduates -- all are suffering while the one percent gets richer. Match that with cutbacks in public services which traditionally help the middle and working class. Society, globalization and technology are structured by those with power and wealth. If this is all capitalism has to offer no wonder socialism and Bernie Sanders are popular. Liberals need to get off Russia and back a left populism that can defeat Trump.
11
On average it takes $60,000 for a family of four to be sheltered, fed and have health insurance. I am at loss how paying a government employee $28,000 makes any sense. Most developed and developing countries of the world have a starting salary for employees which makes life livable.
The falsy of the argument that big governments are bad is laid bare the moment disaster strikes our cities - Hurricanes are prime examples. Have we done well? Look no further than the last three hurricanes since our memories are very short these days. Our highways are deteriorating , our food is no longer inspected, the water we drink and the air we breath is unregulated. We cut our way to ever smaller governments but in the process we may have cut the lifespans of our grandchildren - their world will be ill prepared for the disasters that we unravel on them as we leave this Earth. Belated Happy Earth Day Everyone!
6
only the little people need those government services and living wages you talk about.
the real important people our country is being run to benefit do not need anything from the government except for it to get out of the way so they can take advantage of everyone else... and to continue lucrative programs they game for billions, such as defense manufacturing and Medicare loopholes, as just two examples.
these Republican stalwarts who want to cut government to the bone, and then some, do not need clean drinking water, they do not eat food, the do not breathe the air, their expensive vehicles ride on special smooth roads, they never have sewage issues or fall victims to weather disasters. they live on an astral plane paved with gold and gold alone. they are so out of touch with actual human reality, you would think the ancient Greeks would have created a morality tale about them.
oh.
"Short of money, many states have also privatized services like managing public water systems, road repair, emergency services or prisons, transferring jobs from the public sector to private companies that have REDUCED SALARIES AND BENEFITS to INCREASE THEIR PROFITS."
Privatization of government functions does not save money. It just takes middle class paychecks and turns then into global billionaire profits.
Government contracts don't shrink. They grow. And they are not standardized or as public as government salaries, so they grow faster. Privatization is a scam. And the Democrats are not fighting against it.
Look at the Post Office for example. It is in the Constitution, and it supports itself without any tax money. But Republicans have been attacking the Post Office for over a decade. Under Bush, they passed a law that makes the PO fund pensions and healthcare 75 years in advance. No company does that. They are also transferring PO functions to nonunion workers at Staples. Still the PO is successful, so now Trump is attacking their account with Amazon.
Now google Post Office Democrat to see what Democrats are doing to save this critical institution of our Republic: NOTHING!
In order to have strong country, we need to invest in our people. We have to invest in workers and their families.
Education and healthcare and infrastructure make us more productive. Supply Side Economics is destroying everything that made this country strong.
We need a Human Economy.
43
Those that think their local taxes will decrease or even stop increasing when government services are privatized are being misled. The CEO's of "education corporations" will gladly take their taxes, paying the people who actually teach very low wages. Is this what Americans want? Is everyone expecting to be rich enough to afford the best in private schools?
1
"Human Economy." You should copyright that.
2
Bingo!
1
When labor is secondary to capital, society will have monumental problems until the population awakens. Hopefully this country will emerge from a long dumbing down inflicted by conservatives & the Republican Party. There is no earthly reason why the private sector should be held in economic bondage without collective bargaining power in order to provoke envy & anger at the public sector. If the public sector was provided with ample compensation & at least six weeks of vacation per year, there wouldn't be any need to defer compensation to the retirement years.
Americans should be allowed to live in the now, with elan & gusto, just as is done in many European countries, rather than cajoled into dreams of an increasingly uncertain gleaning in their senior years of what's left of the earth after the greedy accomplish their depredations of the nation & planet.
16
This state of affairs will bring America down as the leader of the world much faster than can be compensated by any military build-up. Part of America's power was the feeling in the world that the inhabitants of the USA were well off while enjoying their freedom. What reason would anyone have to want to be in a society that is like that of the US if the US is is so shabby towards its own people.
11
So union busting works! Guess we're ready for more privatization.
2
It's not just the state and local public workers, the federal workers are also underpaid (according to the Times by almost 30%) and the minimum wage, designed to provide a living wage, no longer meets even the basic cost of living. Jobs which provided good pay and benefits are now held by "contractors," who get no benefits or job security. In the 1930's poor treatment of workers let to riots and mass strikes, resulting in the creation of the Taft-Hartley Act, designed to protect workers rights to organize and strike for good pay and working conditions. Today the NLRB, the federal agency which enforces that Act, is in shambles and unions have been undermined and destroyed, beginning with Reagan's firing of the air controllers. We are now beginning to see mass protests again, led by underpaid, under appreciated teachers. The destruction of the middle class is all in order to provide extra tax benefits to corporations and the wealthy, who in fact do not need them, and in reality do not provide any kind of "trickle down" benefits to working people. It is time to raise taxes on the wealthy and make corporations pay their fair share. Please vote a straight Democratic ticket, the Republicans are destroying our country.
11
it is not ours. it is theirs. wake up.
The facts do not support the premise of the article. Try to get a 60-100k job that is overtime eligible and has a guaranteed pension and a Cadillac health plan - in the private sector. There are a few, and the recipients are grateful. The public sector has always paid mire than the private sector. And it still does today. Any cogent analysis must look, not at base salary, but at career compensation including benefits, retirement and time off. But we never see that intellectually fair comparison - wonder why not? Teachers make 100k (or more) generally and police/fire are commonly paid 200k by this analysis. In career compensation per year worked, relative to a full time non government worker. We never talk about it because it goes against a key power structure in electoral politics. But I won’t just sit here and tolerate completely dishonest financial comparisons.
8
'Teachers make 100k (or more) generally and police/fire are commonly paid 200k by this analysis."
Wow, you are totally off base.
1
You're right about some federal jobs, but not with many states, and those that once did have these jobs are seeing them disappear. Fat can be trimmed, but a $28,000 teachers' salary is most certainly not fat.
1
I hope you understand that many private sector workers are paid even less than 28k. Some are paid 14k.
These numbers can be aggregated nationally and have been. Nationally, public sector workers are much more highly compensated, particularly in the lower 3 quartiles. The headline and lead paragraph of this article are easily debunked.
You get only what you pay for, so I don't mind at all that my taxes go to paying a living wage to a social worker, fireman or teacher. Hopefully my house will never burn down, but somebodies will, and i want well trained firemen to be in place to help whoever needs them. In that sense I am more than willing to pay for services I hopefully will never have to use. That's what is called the common good. It's things like political appointees flying first class to golf junkets, expensive soundproof chambers in their offices, etc that I would like to put a stop to.
12
"Servants" of what? Civilization. Without those public sector workers there can BE no country or civilization.
6
According to 'reaganomics/supply-side', everything economic/social is working as planned. The Aristocrats who've won the birth-lottery are living in Paradise with millions of servants to the feed engines of Capitalism.
Just a few more cycles of 'tax cuts' and 'privatisation' and 'deregulation', and we will have completed our transformation to a 18th century style feudalism.
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