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January 16, 2011 in City
Pay raises lag in public sector
City’s workers fare better than county’s, analysis shows
An analysis of recent wage increases shows that the pay of many local government workers is rising slightly slower than the rate of workers in the private sector.
From 2002 to 2009, workers in the private sector in Spokane County experienced wage increases of 26.4 percent. Wages of workers in local government were up 24.7 percent.
Patrick Jones, executive director of Eastern Washington University’s Institute for Public Policy and Economic Analysis, said given recent rhetoric, the data surprised him.
“The conventional wisdom is that government workers’ economic lot is improving faster than the private sector,” he said.
Especially in the city of Spokane, wage increases have been held down in recent years as administrators have pushed union negotiators for concessions to deal with the economic downturn.
The numbers don’t take into account benefits – an area where government workers enjoy significant advantage over private sector workers – but they do indicate that even in the economic downtown, government wage increases haven’t been out of step with the private sector.
A separate analysis of pay increases from 2000 to 2010 among local government workers in Spokane County shows that in general, Spokane workers have been more successful than county and transit unions in bargaining for wages over the past 10 years. The largest city union, Local 270 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, saw pay increase by about 45 percent. That compares with wage increases of closer to 30 percent among most nonpublic safety unions in the county and at Spokane Transit Authority. City library workers’ wages also rose closer to 30 percent.
Among the clear leaders in pay raises among local government employees are firefighters. Both in Spokane and Spokane Valley, firefighters saw wage increases of more than 50 percent from 2000 to 2010.
Mark Vietzke, president of Spokane’s Local 29 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said firefighters saw bigger increases because the pay was lower compared with similar departments to start the decade.
“We’ve just had a couple years where we’re catching up with our comparables,” Vietzke said.
Under state law, if local governments can’t agree to terms with police and firefighter unions during contract negotiations, the dispute is sent to an arbitrator who will set pay raises based on wages and benefits of “comparable” agencies. Police and firefighters are not allowed to strike.
Spokane officials have made changing the state law a priority this year during their annual legislative lobbying efforts. The Association of Washington Cities is backing a bill that would force arbitrators to consider other factors in setting pay for police and firefighters – including a government’s ability to pay and the standard of living of a community’s population.
Former Mayor Dennis Hession said local governments have been hurt by not being able to consider “the ability to pay.”
“The only other way to do it is by raising taxes. In this climate, that’s not something people are very interested in,” Hession said. “What I always focused on was not so much a value judgment but how much we could afford to pay.”
Spokane Mayor Mary Verner said the desire of the city to change the law has little to do with recent negotiations. She noted that the city’s fire and police unions both agreed to concessions late last year to save jobs.
“The reason has to do as much with local control of our destiny as with anything else,” Verner said. “We’re just not wealthy enough as a city to be benchmarked to other communities.”
Hession said one possible reason that city salaries rose higher than county pay is that city leaders have focused more on holding down health care costs. At the bargaining table, that often means giving up on demands to keep wage increases low.
Spokane County CEO Marshall Farnell said county wages have lagged behind city of Spokane pay for as long as he remembers. He thinks the difference partly results from cities having utility taxes and business license fees.
“The cities’ diversity of revenue is a little bit broader,” he said. “They have the ability to pay – more so than the county.”
In the early part of the decade, the number of private sector jobs being created in Spokane County outpaced the number of government jobs being created. That situation began to reverse during the recession as private sector jobs declined while local governments continued creating jobs, according to state statistics.
James Gregory, a University of Washington history professor and director of the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies, said wages of government workers likely have been sustained in the downturn in part by union contracts. But political forces are changing and that likely will affect government wages.
“In the years ahead, that could really deteriorate dramatically,” he said. “That is likely to last for a long time even after the national economy and state economy begins to recover substantially.”
Gregory, an expert on the Great Depression, said much of the rhetoric against government employee unions has been “wildly misleading and opportunistic.” Unions tend to drive up the standards of living of even nonunion workers, he said. That’s especially true among public sector workers because their wages are readily known and private employers have to compete with them.
Susan Meyer, STA’s CEO, said the agency and transit unions have agreed to smaller increases in recent years because the economic downtown threatened service cuts.
“The public expects that,” she said.
MAC faces angry crowd 
Ninch on January 16 at 7:47 a.m.
Unions were favored during the Great Depression and indeed received wage increases even though unemployment was 25%. In other words, higher wages does nothing to help the living standard of the unemployed.
berrybestfarm on January 16 at 7:52 a.m.
The study seems self serving. It does not go into much depth on which private sector jobs were compared. It does recognize the better benefits and increased numbers of public employees. Again and again the issue most of us have with government is the growth—not so much the pay of the average public employee. Administrative pay is another issue.
TheRoyLarsen on January 16 at 7:58 a.m.
“Lewis Janitor complaining about police salaries” in three…two…one…
lewis8457 on January 16 at 8:00 a.m.
who cares they have jobs don’t they? 2002 does anybody remember the recession of 2008? Where 4 million people lost their jobs?
No of course not this is just more whining for the already over paid government workers.
Here is an idea knock them all down 20% in pay.
mikeln on January 16 at 8:27 a.m.
Here’s a idea, pay people a living wage!
lewis8457 on January 16 at 8:44 a.m.
I told you royLarsen i am not that kind of guy call Jay Olsen he will take care of you.
deacon46 on January 16 at 9:30 a.m.
Article paid for by the Unions. Compare actual jobs and raises not some consultants or union reps ideas. Besides the issue is is there value in these city and State jobs to us tax payers. I would assume maybe 50% are of value. It is the total cost and value of these jobs and services that is the real issue.
liarsinnews on January 16 at 9:34 a.m.
If anybody wants to take the time, they will find out employees working for the city of Spokane and how the city plays the numbers game. Actual persons working for the city hasn`t changed much and Verner thinks the citizens believe her threats. I call it blackmail when she always pushes the hot buttons like firefighters and police and threatens to abolish those positions. Verner is full of prunes.
JBlim on January 16 at 9:53 a.m.
Lewis thinks government workers are “overpaid” because while they went to college, worked hard and learned a worthwhile skill, he dropped out of high school and spent his time goofing off. Now he wants to cut their pay. Actually government workers are already underpaid.
proof here- follow the link to the scmhitt study:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/09/schoolteachers-driving-cadillacs/
pjc on January 16 at 10:00 a.m.
Factor in benefits for government workers and then print the story.
It is rather misleading because benefits are rather important in the grand scheme of things.
Coffee on January 16 at 10:12 a.m.
JBlim government workers are only worth what we the tax payers are willing to pay. It does not matter how well trained or educated they are.
I am tired of reducing my standard of living so that government workers can stay the same or improve theirs.
monkeyman on January 16 at 10:13 a.m.
Most important paragraph (should read “downturn”):
“The numbers don’t take into account benefits – an area where government workers enjoy significant advantage over private sector workers – but they do indicate that even in the economic downtown, government wage increases haven’t been out of step with the private sector.”
Private companies are getting rid of pension plans, and health insurance premiums have probably increased by 3-4x in 10 years. And so on…
“Among the clear leaders in pay raises among local government employees are firefighters. Both in Spokane and Spokane Valley, firefighters saw wage increases of more than 50 percent from 2000 to 2010.”
> 50%, whoa…wonder how the benefit levels changed?
Dazzeetrader11 on January 16 at 10:32 a.m.
1.This article discusses raises NOT what the WAGE is. They all make more in government service than in the private sector. This is just talking about increases. They all are making high wages. Doesn’t surprise anyone their increases are a bit less.
2. Article makes no mention of BENEFITS which are worth 1/3 rd more.
3. Article doesn’t deal with the HUGE pensions attached to the already bloated salaries.
4. Read carefully…first paragraph “many”… doesn’t define the term.
Not sure why this article was written . Doesn’t reveal much. In some ways it’s deceptive…..in fact in most ways. Doesn’t have anything to do with the debt.
Unions need to go. Benefits and pensions ( not rate of salary increases) are the problems. Public taxpayer pays for both…….and then the privates have to pay for their own benefits and pensions. It’s just garbage. Job numbers have soared in government jobs. No wonder!!
Jonathan ur being an apologist for the govenrment unions now using misdirection? SIlly tactic….and quite irrelevant. If Daisy had to guess, this article is written in this way because author looked at wages, benefits and pensions…which likely was a huge eye opener for him. SO he had to find something to write about that showed how the poor unions are abused.! OH wahhhhhhhhhh….mission far from accomplished.
Read the editorial people. No way out of this fiscal problem without cutting the number of jobs and cutting salaries. Decert the unions and get back to normal living wages.
biker on January 16 at 11:06 a.m.
Very poor timing for this article. Government salaries, benefits, pensions and until recently, over-staffing (IMHO) in many departments has played a major role in our state and local budget dilemma. I read the local fire departments (way overpaid) received huge wage increases over the last 10 years in order to catch up with comparable departments. Therein lies the problem with this “comparable department” negotiating tactic. It’s a self-perpetuating upward curve for all government agencies to use against each other. Let it be known that the cities and states paying those “comparable departments” are also suffering due to this insane wage comparison tactic used in union negotiations. It’s time to start seeking out comparable departments that make less than ours do and start reversing this curve towards a more suitable wage/benefit scenario.
Dazzeetrader11 on January 16 at 11:13 a.m.
Barb..it’s time to cut wages and benefits. Pensions contributions should be made soley from their salaries like in the real world. When the public pays for it’s own benfits and pensions, it seems unreasonbale to pay for theirs too.
Cut the number of workers and benfits back to the 2005 level .things normalize. Unions will fight.and this is when they go the way of the DODO bird. We have jobs….but we don’t let you rob the public. We also won’t let you drive the government into bankruptcy with crazy wages , pensions and benefits.
jonathanb on January 16 at 11:28 a.m.
Daisy,
The chart accompanying this story in the newspaper allows people to compare wage increases of several city and county unions. Had I guessed what the numbers would show before I began compiling data, I would have assumed that local government wages had risen faster than wages in the private sector over the past decade. Just because the numbers turned out to show something unexpected doesn’t mean they should be ignored.
Obviously benefits are an important consideration — as was mentioned in the article. We’ve looked at benefits before, and I’m sure we will again.
— Jonathan
hammer1969 on January 16 at 11:30 a.m.
“Cut the number of workers and benfits back to the 2005 level”
At least in Spokane, that would be a substantial increase in the number of employees, a pay raise, and an increase in benefits! I’m sure they would be more than happy to take you up on that offer.
mikeln on January 16 at 11:34 a.m.
The headlines will read U.S., the new banana republic. It always amazes me when people defend those making millions at our expense but wish to deprive others enough to put dinner on the table every night.
Alfredo on January 16 at 11:55 a.m.
TANK THE ECONOMY!
That’s the rally cry of the tax cutters.
Let’s add huge numbers to the unemployed. Let’s put those people on welfare instead of working.
Seriously kids, let’s see just how bad we can screw up the economy by laying off every single state employee! It’ll be fun and when it’s all over with, we can blame Gregoire and Obama!
Alfredo on January 16 at 12:12 p.m.
@Coffee on January 16 at 10:12 a.m.
“JBlim government workers are only worth what we the tax payers are willing to pay. It does not matter how well trained or educated they are.
I am tired of reducing my standard of living so that government workers can stay the same or improve theirs.”
In other words…you could care less about the quality of those workers, as long as they’re willing to work for what you will pay them (wow, good thing we have a higher minimum wage here in Washington or you’d have them all working for 5 cents an hour).
Guess what? Just like in the real world, those who are educated and trained could leave the government to make more money in the private sector, which is why government jobs often had better benefits, to keep those people with the state instead of having uneducated people doing the job of someone who should have an education. Often times these benefits were given so that people like you wouldn’t throw a tea total hissy fit over the fact that their positions pay too much (even though in the private sector they could earn substantially more). Now we’re getting down to where many companies aren’t paying their employees much, the money is going upward instead of spread out between executives/owners and the employees so we’re looking at the government as though they should be doing the same, “trimming the fat” so to speak.
Just because we’re having a bad economy now doesn’t mean we should change how things are run. If times were good and you wanted to slash wages for government employees, take a guess at the quality we’d have (would you like fries with that?).
Here’s an example, how do you keep an accountant working for the state if you want to pay them $20k/year? Actually, it’s hard enough keeping them at $40 or 50k/year because a CPA can make a lot more money in the private sector but it’s the job security and benefits that keeps these people in their positions.
Sounds to me as though too many of you are ticked off at having to pay so much in taxes here in Washington (which by the way is a state without income tax). Are you mad because perhaps you have a degree and found a job in the private sector that pays you pretty well and you cannot stand the thought of parting with a small slice of your pie to pay the people who need to do their jobs to keep the state functioning or is it that you just want to go back to a more simple time when we didn’t have emergency services, roads, bridges, schools, etc?
Coffee on January 16 at 12:17 p.m.
It cost me less tax money to pay welfare for unemployed government workers than their salaries and benefits.
It has been mentioned that they are college educated and well trained so they should be able to find work in the private sector with out much trouble.
Dazzeetrader11 on January 16 at 12:35 p.m.
Alfredo…the economy is already “TANKED”…thanks to liberal spending. And it’s not Bush…it’s Verner, Gregoire and their crazy unnessary spending. High budgets….for?..bikes, trees, not efforts at developing commerce. no aid to business who might provide jobs…..she spent on $13 million in buildings…….
and of course the UNION jobs, penions and benefits not to mention their already high salaries. No way out of this without trimming jobs, decert the unions ( they won’t go by themselves) and stop the crazy spending. It’s so silly to think this is about a reduced rate of incremental raises…..! lol.it‘s not the problem.
west on January 16 at 1:59 p.m.
Money will always be tight in Spokane..face it folks, police and fire eat up 50 percent of budget and another 25 percent rest of the employees..so a tiny 25 percent left for for other stuff..like zero for road maintenance etc. And it will get worse as the years go along. You say pay raises are small..3-4 percent..but 3-4 percent of $80,000 to $150,000 is no small peanuts (fire and police). Dig deeper Spokane private workers, who make $28k a year on ave…you will feel good, warm and fuzzy knowing the city guys making 80-150k a year are taking real good care of you….hah..
empyrius on January 16 at 2:02 p.m.
Daisy, your first two posts are excellent!
But getting republicans into office will do nothing, probably even worsen, the situation.
This has nothing to do with red and blue b/c it is all about the green!
Dazzeetrader11 on January 16 at 4:52 p.m.
empyrius..I’m not thinking blue or red. I’m neither.
Crazy spending well…crazy. This artile really doesn’t deal with much…”rate” of pay increase doesn’t mean much either. When they’re already at the top end, of course the rates should slow. It’s the debt cause by the big salaries, big pensions and big benefits…and all this amplied by a big staff……..<–those things must go or the golden goose dies off, which is what’s happening.
Verner’s bargained this to be elected in the first place. She crated a monster and now she’s struggling to tame her monster.which she didn’t. Police got everything.their unions and the fire unions got everything. Heck no 270 union refused to even negotiate. Fire em all and start over….or the citizens die off as does the city. Nobody ever promised these thieves undending money. Nobody has said “NO’ yet.
When Doctors, Nurses, faculty member ALL are frozen or losing in their wages, not sure what makes the unions think they should continue breaking the bank. Gregoire, Verner, Obama…all tax and spend libs who have no backbones to protect the citizenry.
EdubU on January 16 at 6:59 p.m.
Where are the jobs Mr McConnell and Mr Boehner??
Dazzeetrader11 on January 16 at 10:58 p.m.
Edub,….they don’t take any . Obama’s done that already..remeber the Dem Pres and the Dem Senate still have control of some things.
Jonathan…your note is kind but doesn’t deal with the issue. You focused on the least of the issue when it comes to unions. It’s not a percentage of wage increase…it’s the benefits and those crazy pensions.
I’m given to understan you’re friendly to the union causes but the meat of the article (benfits and pension funding by the public tax structure) is what needs written about.
The number of job needs reduced by 15%, same with the wages ( like Brown’s doing in California (hes doing 10% for starters)).,,,,followed by benefit reduction and certainly get out of the pension funding.
If we do not get back to the mid 2000 levels, the US is cooked to be blunt.,,,,as is the ST.Verners a disgrace when it comes to SPokane money management. She’s a lost lamb when it comes to management.,….not a good spot to occuly when times are shakey….she’s made things worse but claimed victory. ..it’s a laugher to be honest. SOmeone who knows what they’re doing needs to be the mayor..not someone like Verner and certainly not Cooley who cannot run two nickels together..,..and hides it from the publics’ view in an expansively hidden shell game. She’ll keep this up during her re-election campaign. Typical to hold off the true situation while running…If she was smart, she’d have the City do Ch 11…..get someone in who knows what to do, open the books, rearrange and cut things and throw herself on the mercy of the court. Put the money for her bike and tree zaniness back in the General fund. Federal grant? nonsense… Thanks for your article Jon…
Alfredo on January 17 at 6:20 a.m.
LOL @ Daisy saying she’s neither blue nor red. She’s about as red as it gets.
Daisy says health care is for those who can afford, it’s a luxury.
Daisy says taxes should be the burden of those who work, not those who count their cash in the bank.
Daisy says anyone in gubmint is evil.
Daisy says Obama is the anti-Christ.
Daisy says the poor economy is all Obama’s fault and life was rose for all 96 months of the Bush administration.
Daisy blames everything on Democrats, so saying she’s neither red nor blue is pure bull excrement.
Teabaggin is her thang!
monkeyman on January 18 at 7:27 p.m.
…coming soon to a neighborhood near you.
–Struggling N.J. city lays off cops, firefighters–
“Nearly half the Camden police force, including civilians, and about one-third of its firefighters lost their jobs as city leaders sought to balance the budget amid falling tax revenue and diminishing aid from the state.”
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/41136744/ns/us_news-life/
decturkey on January 19 at 4:05 p.m.
Just to add some insight on my break real quick. I get paid $16.48/hour, 37.5 hours a week, which comes out to $2678.38 a month. My take home pay is $1858.58. I get $770.69 a month in benefits. This totals out to $3449.07 a month in pay and benefits. In my private sector job I had over 2 years ago, I was making $20 an hour, 40 hours a week, which totalled out to $3466.67. I was making more in just my salary than I am with all my benefits here at the County. Just some food for thought.