In the interest of helping the public make informed decisions about whether the
Legislature should increase taxes to plug the budget deficit, BIAW has created this
website to track state workers’ salaries and benefits.
A recent Seattle Times
article noted wages and benefits for teachers and state workers are responsible
for eating up 60 percent of the budget.
Before buying the sob story that state workers are underpaid and deserve pay raises,
please use this resource to help determine whether YOUR taxes should be increased.
Read more...
Efforts are underway at the Capitol to raise taxes to bridge the $2.8 billion deficit
resulting from the Democratic majority’s inability to curtail out of control government
spending. The “tug at the heartstrings” arguments being used to rationalize
raising taxes during the greatest downturn in the economy since the Great Depression
center focus on the catastrophic results of cutting so-called essential services
to the “vulnerable” and “needy.”
While nobody would argue against preserving funding for the truly vulnerable and
needy, we have to question just who the Governor and her Democratic colleagues
lump into that category. Based on the inordinate amount of consideration given
by Gregoire to the behemoth of special interest groups—unionized state employees—it
seems they qualify.
Lest you buy into the sob story that state workers are underpaid and “deserve” pay
raises, consider the facts. In addition to high
salaries, state employees receive extravagant
benefit packages (averaging around 30 percent of their salary) and are
awarded a significant amount of
paid time off (up to 45+ paid days off in many cases; far more than most
private sector workers). The value of paid time off, while not having a direct budget
impact, is considerable!
Read less.
Data Selection Parameters
See Calculation Notes
Calculation Notes
Source
Pay data is compiled from the Washington State Office of Financial Management’s
2009 Personnel Detail Report
and represents a snapshot in time—the pay rate effective January 31, 2009. Employees
may have left or had changes in status or pay. The annual pay rate does not include
any overtime accrued. Benefits are estimated by the State of Washington to be worth
approximately 30 percent
of annual pay. State employees are estimated to receive approximately 45+
paid days off when maximal vacation, holiday, and sick leave are taken.
Note on Paid Time Off
The purpose of assigning a dollar value to Paid Time Off is to draw attention to
the fact that PTO has both a value to the employee and a cost to the taxpayers of
the State of Washington. It also allows a more honest comparison for many of Washington’s
self-employed who do not receive any paid time-off. If they do not work, they do
not get paid. It’s that simple. If state employees were to forego all their PTO,
the taxpayers would certainly have fewer state employees to support….creating huge
budget savings not only with respect to state employee wages/benefits/PTO, but also
other overhead such as office space & costs, travel etc. It should be noted that
the dollar values assigned to PTO differ from the values assigned to salary and
benefits in that it is not a direct cost to the state, but that is a far cry from
saying that it doesn’t cost the state.
Annual Pay
OFM supplies pay amounts based upon four major pay types: daily, hourly, monthly,
and by contract. For each employee they also indicate the number of contract
months and a "percent of full time" value.
The following table describes how an annual pay value was determined for each employee:
|
Pay Type
|
Annual Pay Calculation
|
|
Daily
|
Daily pay * 260 (work days in a year) * Percent of FT
|
|
Hourly
|
Hourly pay * 173.33 (work hours in a month) * Contract Months * Percent of
FT
|
|
Monthly
|
Monthly pay * Contract Months
|
|
By Contract
|
Contract pay amount
|
Benefits, PTO and Total Compensation
State workers receive extravagantly generous benefits and a high amount of PTO (paid
time off). To demonstrate the impact to taxpayers, BIAW has added cost columns for
benefits, PTO and total compensation.
The following table describes how these costs were calculated:
|
Cost Item
|
Cost Calculation*
|
|
Benefits
|
Annual Pay * 30%
|
|
PTO
|
(Annual Pay + Benefits) * 18%
|
|
Total Compensation (annualized)
|
Annual Pay + Benefits + PTO
|
*PLEASE NOTE: These costs only apply to employees that are eligible for benefits.
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