NY public worker wages top private sector: study

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Public employees who work for New York
State or its local governments earn more each year than their
private sector peers in 51 of the state’s 62 counties,
according to a study released on Sunday.

Not surprisingly, the pattern was reversed in Manhattan,
thanks to its banks and brokerages, law, accounting and media
companies and their higher salaries.

The average 2005 salary for a Manhattanite was $92,269 in
2005, according to the report by the Empire Center. The center
is a project of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a
non-profit, non-partisan think tank.

That paycheck was almost double the average state
government salary of $48,741. Local governments paid a little
less than the state: $45,341 on average.

Private employers have not added back all of the 300,000
jobs they lost between 2000 and 2003 due to the September 11
attacks and the stock market’s declines. But there are more
public sector jobs than ever.

Private sector employment peaked in late 2000 at 7.2
million jobs. By July, the total was still 0.6 percent below
the July 2000 level, the study said.

The ranks of state government workers had climbed by 0.2
percent and local governments had boosted their staffs by 2.9
percent.

New York state alone now employs around 180,000 people,
according to Scott Reif, a spokesman for the Division of
Budget.

Gov. George Pataki, a Republican angling for the
presidential nomination, is not seeking a fourth term as
governor in November.

“Given the findings in today’s report, we think it is
important that the next governor keep in place Governor
Pataki’s accomplishments in reducing the size of the State’s
work force by 20,000 positions,” Reif added in a statement.

New York state’s work force is distinct from the rest of
the nation in at least one key area, according to the study.

The number of state and local government workers who belong
to a union is at an all-time high of more than one million. One
of every eight New York workers is a unionized government
employee, the study said. The national average is only one in
every 19 workers.