State taxpayers spent $500,000 for a study to prove state employees are not paid enough. Count that expense as yet another example of wasted dollars during the middle of a budget crisis.
The CPS Human Resources Services study found that the state?s average minimum salary is about 5 percent below market rates and that the average maximum salary was about 3 percent below market rates. First, those differences fall within a “margin of error” for most polls, so state salaries may not lag those of other states and cities. The study found that salary benefits were very competitive with other states, however, which would lessen, if not erase, any discrepancy.
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Second, the average state worker at $878 per week makes more money than the average private sector worker ($849) in Maryland, according to the Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation. State employees constantly claim they do not make as much as those in the private sector ? which these statistics should disprove. It is true that state employees in certain professions earn less than their private sector counterparts. But that?s why working for the government is called “public service.”
Besides, government jobs offer perks not available to many in the private sector, including job stability, regular cost-of-living increases and generous vacation and benefits packages. Some positions also offer the chance to pursue meaningful work and to follow “a higher calling” ? not packed into the average private sector cubicle.
Third, the timing could not be worse for the study. Asking taxpayers to pay higher wages forstate employees ? surely the main intent of commissioning the study in the first place ? as Marylanders? net worths nose-dive thanks to the faltering housing market, higher prices for food and gas and higher state taxes is the height of hubris.
Only those who have never known the anxiety of layoffs, pay cuts and failed businesses would float the idea of a pay raise in these times. Insurance Commissioner Ralph Tyler, formerly Baltimore City solicitor, admitted Thursday that Gov. Martin O?Malley?s administration lacks staff with business experience. This survey is a prime example. His solution called for asking more businessmen to enter the state payrolls. Not a bad idea. But you don?t need to start a business to exercise common sense. Superfluous “studies” are one more item legislators should trim from O?Malley?s $31 billion budget this session.
