About Government Pay
Sadly, there are no current local comprehensive salary studies
comparing the public and private sector.
Nevertheless,
there's plenty of evidence of this pay disparity. For instance, in
April 2005, Fox 6 TV News did a quick salary survey of two common,
comparable job categories -- comparing three area cities with the local
private sector. Here were the results:
"Legal Assistant" pay:
City of San Diego: $40,584 to $49,844
Carlsbad: $30,000 to $50,000
Escondido: $48,528 to $58,980
PRIVATE SECTOR: $28,000 to $33,000
From
the low to high end, the difference between public sector and private
sector pay is $12,000 to $17,000 -- roughly 42 percent to 60 percent
higher pay for public legal assistants.
Custodian
City of San Diego: $24,672 to $30,000
Carlsbad: $27,664 to $33,144
Escondido: $26,688 to $32,436
PRIVATE SECTOR: $18,000 to $20,000
From
the low to high end, the difference is $6,000 to $13,000 -- roughly 32
percent to 37 percent higher pay for public custodians.
The Fox
story concluded with some quick interviews with people on the street,
showing them the disparity in pay. They were surprised -- most thought
it was the other way around.
Sometimes apologists for high
government salaries will point to the relatively low pay of government
middle managers and department head positions, claiming that equivalent
private sector positions pay more. True at first glance. But the jobs
are not the same. Private sector managers are paid to make their
companies money. Public sector managers are paid to spend government
money.
CALIFORNIA DATABASE!!
Now we're
talking the "devil in the
details." The fine print, the small numbers that become a multi-billion
dollar state budget. Reports, stats, links to local and federal data
sites.
Election districts and more. You gotta be a junkie to play around in
here.
CALIFORNIA
(ETC.) DATABASE
SAN DIEGO ASSOCIATION
OF GOVERNMENTS
Not enough that we got
like 400 governments,
we also have an Association of Governments. Never can have enough
gummint,
right? Keep tabs on these folks. They funnel a lot of money and have a
lot of impact on where you can build a home, whether hiways get built
and
like that. CLICK
HERE TO REACH
SANDAG
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