In my previous post here, I described, and provided in a spreadsheet, my tabulation of 2006 local government and payroll data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which was released on March 5th, and related private-sector employment data. This data show that relative to its population New York City continues to have far more people working in hospitals, both public and private, than the national average, while the rest of New York State has far more people than average working in public schools. One thing that has changed from past years, however, is that New York City’s public schools are not as under-staffed, and its instructional employees as underpaid, as they once were, though the pay level remains below the national average if overall wage levels Downstate are considered.
This post will review what the data shows for other categories of public services. Here there has been little change from what I have seen year after year, with some public services having below-average staffing in New York City relative to all local governments in the United States as a whole, and some having above average staffing, and with some having relatively high pay and some relatively low.New York City had 566 police officers per 100,000 residents in March 2006, 2 ½ times the national average of 207, while the number of police officers is about average in the rest of New York State. As I wrote in the last post, the wages public employees earn in high-cost Downstate New York needs to be adjusted for overall wage level there and thus the cost of living. Excluding the high-paid finance and insurance sector, private-sector workers in Downstate New York typically earn about one-third more than the national average. New York City’s police officers, however, earned only 7.6% more than the national average, continuing a record of underpayment that was interrupted by the massive overtime of 9/11. Government finance data from the Census Bureau (the latest from 2004, download the spreadsheet attached to this post to see it) show that spending on the NYPD is far above the national average even so; large numbers and rich pensions more than offset the low wages. So New Yorkers pay high taxes for underpaid police.
The pattern of high staffing and low pay repeats itself several times. For example, in a prior post I showed that New York City accounts for a huge share of the nation’s home health aides and personal care aides, but they earn no more than the national average in this high cost city. In the Public Welfare category, the data show that New York City had 286 local government workers per 100,000 residents in March 2006, but these workers earned just 7.9% more than the national average for similar workers. City agencies such as the Administration for Children’s services have an ongoing problem recruiting and retaining social workers. Other communities with very small transit systems can afford to pay their transit workers very well with a limited tax impact; New York City has 582 transit employees per 100,000 residents compared with a national average of 76, and pays the 21.1% more than the national average rather than 33%. Here, too, rich pensions in addition to large numbers increase labor costs. New York’s firefighters earned 17.5% more than the national average in March 2006, but the city had 198 firefighters per 100,000 residents compared with a national average of 108, and the city’s firefighters also get extremely expensive pensions. (May places have volunteer fire departments).
In other cases, however, New York City’s local government employees have both below average staffing and below average pay, adjusted for the difference in private sector wages. New York City had 59 parks and recreation workers (including the Department of Cultural Affairs) per 100,000 residents, below the national average of 78, and these workers earned just 18.9% more than similar workers do nationally. On the other hand, with its many non-profit cultural institutions, the city had 134 private-sector Museum, Zoo and Park workers per 100,000 residents, compared with a national average of 41. Though often located on New York City parkland, these private organizations often require a fee for entry. Strapped with low funding, that seems to be a trend for the city’s other parks facilities as well. New York City had 31 local government library workers per 100,000 residents, compared with a national average of 43, and paid them just 8.4% more than the national average. The city had an average number of community college instructional employees with 44, but paid them just 15.6% more than the national average.
So who has the good deals? New York City had 123 local government sanitation workers per 100,000 residents, many times the national average of 36. Many places do not have public trash collection, but the city’s private trash collection employment, at 27 per 100,000 residents, was almost as high as the national average, at 35. New York City paid its Department of Sanitation workers 75.7% more than the national average. New York City has 164 Department of Corrections workers per 100,000 residents, compared with a national average of 83, but these still earn 33.8% more than the national average, or about what one would expect given private-sector wages. Thanks to the huge New York City Housing Authority, the city has 207 local government housing and community development workers per 100,000 residents, while the national average is just 38, but these earn 28.4% more than the national average, again close to what would be expected.
Even with the large share of city residents who use mass transit, the city had 82 local government highways workers per 100,000 residents, close to the national average of 103, and they were paid 57.9% more than the national average. The weren’t supervising so much construction, however as the city’s private heavy construction industry employed just 93 people per 100,000 residents, compared with a national average of 331. And in the public schools, New York City has very few non-instructional employees – just 382 per 100,000 residents compared with a national average of 678, but they are paid well – 61.4% more than the national average overall.
Aside from very high public school employment, which I discussed in my prior post, where do New Jersey and the rest of New York State stand out? New Jersey has a lot of police officers, with 293 per 100,000 residents compared with the national average of 207. And the rest of New York State pays police officers a lot — 31% more than the national average even though many are in low-cost Upstate New York. The 2002 Census of Governments shows the very high pay is concentrated in the Downstate Suburbs. Transit is also more common in the rest of New York State (150 state and local government employees per 100,000 residents) and New Jersey (137) than the national average (76). But both areas also have lots of people working on the roads — 205 local government highway workers per 100,000 residents in the rest of New York State and 141 in New Jersey compared with the 103 national average.
As I have said many times, just because it is the national average doesn’t make it right, but substantial deviations in either direction need to be justified. The city’s police officers are underpaid, but can we really afford so many — both working and early retired? In New York City people live in small housing units and give up private amenities like lots of room for storage and big back yards with swimming pools in exchanged for shared amenities such as public parks, pools, beaches, and libraries. Given that, why are our library hours so diminished from years past, and our parks increasingly fee-for-service, despite our high taxes? Given their tough job, we want to do right by our sanitation workers, but are they really doing right by us? When the numbers match what you sense by observation, there is an issue.