Lincolnite

How dare you introduce logic to this discussion?

Many city, state and county workers don’t take the job because the pay is great, or that the benefits rock.  They take it because the pay is “ok” and the job security is high.  We’ve gone through the process of comparison.  The department was found to be sorely underpaid and a small raise was given to the department with the promise of filling the remaining gap over the next couple years.  The poor economy hit, the promise wasn’t kept, and we haven’t gotten a raise since.  We stay because we know the chances of us getting a pink slip are low (we aren’t crummy workers either) and mediocre pay is better than the unemployment line.  Sometimes natural pressure doesn’t exist.. especially when there is no money in the budget to bargain for in the first place.

yeah…that is about right.  It is a job…pure and simple.  If one does not like what it pays…find something else.  There are many that would LOVE a nice government job.  Those in government jobs that complain…well you ALWAYS have to option to go elsewhere like all the rest of the working folks.  Frankly…I only get paid more when my revenue increases.  Small business owners are in the same boat…sometimes we can not afford to do whatever we wanted several years back.  Great Health insurance, a 2 to 1 match, etc.  These benefits are unheard of at almost all lower income jobs.  McD’s has a “health insurance light” plan…but yes…the employee’s do contribute to it.  And you know…a lot of jobs don’t give raises every year like clock work.  In fact…no employer is mandated to give raises in said fashion so why do government employees expect tax payers, ie, their neighbors, to give them a raise every year for doing the exact same job they did the year before?  And why do your neighbors pay for your 2 to 1 match when their own 401k is only a 1 to 1 match?  Why is it expected that we pay benefits that are better than our own?

Many government jobs have no comparison in the private sector so you have to compare with other public sector jobs in comparable cities. You can’t compare a fire fighter to a Wal-mart greeter. You can’t compare a sewage treatment plant manager to the 16 year old kid serving mcburgers at the drive thru. Private sector worker are also compensated differently. Private sector workers receive benfits such as Christmas or end of year bonuses. They may have profit sharing plans. Some of them receive corporate outings, company sponsored travel, etc. that public sector workers don’t ever receive. The Wall Street executives who brought down our financial sector received multi-million dollar bonuses but the government workers who oversee financial institutions receive only a fracture of those executives’ salaries and no bonuses whatsoever. Is that fair? You have to evaluate public sector salary and benefits based upon what other public sector workers earn.

You have to evaluate public sector salary and benefits based upon what other public sector workers earn.

Why? You treat that statement as a given, yet the whole point of my post was that your statement doesn’t make sense to me. So I ask again: Why do we, in Lincoln, “have to” match our government employees’ salaries to those in “comparable” cities? Why can’t we pay those employees strictly according to what we are willing and able to pay?

Why compare? By comparing public sector worker salaries, the taxpayer, the government employer and the government employee can determine whether the employee’s salary is reasonable. It is about the only way the employer, the employee and the taxpayer can objectively value the employee’s job. You could tell the firefighters, “We’re only willing to pay you minimum wage, no benefits” but minimum wage will get you minimum fire fighting ability. When the firefighters go on strike, what would the citizens do who depend on their assistance? How does the employee, the employer and the taxpayer negotiate a reasonable wage for the essential service firefighters provide? We look at other cities of comparable size to determine the fair market value of an experienced, well-trained firefighter’s service to the community.

Every job has a private sector comparison.  Believe me…there are city’s in our nation that do indeed HIRE a company to do ambulance service.  Fire & police crews could easily be privatized…an good idea at times.  If a company ran them there would not be over runs, etc.  Every job the government does COULD be privatized…no exceptions.  Private companies build our roads.  And private companies could police them also if needed.

And just a note…it was not just wall street that caused our mess.  It was all of us…too many people in houses way over their price range, etc.  Wall Street Execs are just an easier place to lay blame than to look in the mirror at our own debt.