After the recession, city Comptroller John Liu claimed that people began thinking of those in the public sectors as the "new fat cats," and wanted to set the record straight. So in a new report (below), the office reminds everyone that city workers get paid on average 17 percent less than their counterparts in the private, for-profit sector. “These findings about municipal salaries are an important foundation for any discussion about public employee pensions,” Liu said in a statement. “The issue of retirement needs to be looked at in the context of the overall compensation package earned by public employees." So, not at 65?
The report found that the biggest pay discrepancies were between city and private doctors, followed by lawyers, engineering managers and financial managers. Child care workers, architects and ground maintenance workers tend to make more working for the city, but the report also says that city employees are on average better educated. A poll reported said that 51 percent of people think that city employees are paid too much, though that might have something to do with those few who manage to boost their salaries up to 167 percent.
Fun Fact: In 2009 the Federal Government (excluding Defense) employed just 200,000 more people than Wal-Mart stores, which in turn employed 1,607,000 more people than the entire state of California.
