How many federal government workers are goodfor the Maryland economy?
It is a topic that concerns us as wages in the private sector increasingly lag behind those in the public sector.
Maryland ranks fifth, tied with New York, for the number of federal civilian workers employed in the state. California, Texas, Washington, D.C., and Virginia have more.
But of those places, Maryland ranks second only to Washington, D.C., for the percent of federal workers per person. Federal workers comprise 2.4 percent of the state?s population ? a long way from the District of Columbia?s 34 percent. (California: 0.7 percent; Texas: 0.7 percent; Virginia: 1.9 percent)
But the state is about to gain about 18,000 more federal jobs over the next four to six years because of military base closures and realignments.
Do we really want to start looking more like our capital, a shining example of former vice presidential candidate John Edwards? “Two Americas” ? one for the rich and one for the poor?
State wage data shows the rich are increasingly those who work for government and the poor are the ones who labor in the private sector. The most recent statistics from the third quarter of 2005 show Maryland?s federal, state and local government workers make an average of $1,024 per week; private sector workers make an average of $820 per week. In the third quarter of 2001, the difference was $149 per week. (Statistics from before 2001 are not available online.)
The federal jobs moving to the state ? engineers and researchers ? are some of the best paid in the government, and will only widen the wage gap.
Sure, those jobs will likely create an estimated 25,000 to 40,000 other jobs over the next six years. But those workers will toil for the same people whose wages they pay through taxes. As the wage gap increases, we wonder if government resentment might follow.
It?s great that Maryland?s economy is doingso well. But we would like it to do well for everyone.
That means the business of Maryland should not be government.
