Bloomberg Bristles At Liu's Study Of Private/Public Employee Benefits

John Liu released a study of the pay and benefits of public employees compared to private employees today.

Here is what he found:

Employees of New York City’s public agencies are older and better educated but are paid less than their counterparts in the private sector, according to a study released on Wednesday by the office of the city comptroller, John C. Liu.

The study, conducted by the comptroller’s chief economist, Frank Braconi, found that the pay gap between the public and private sectors was reversed for less-educated workers, though. City employees who did not attend college earn about 13 percent more than workers with similar educations in the private sector, Mr. Braconi estimated. But city workers with graduate or professional degrees are paid about 16 percent less than their peers in the private sector, he estimated

Nearly half of city employees — 49 percent — have four-year college degrees, compared with just 41 percent of workers in the private sector, according to the study. But the city workers earn slightly less than $55,000 a year, on average, while the private-sector employees make an average of more than $66,000 a year.

A recent analysis of census data for The New York Times found that, since 1990, the median wage of state workers without college degrees had surpassed the median wage private-sector workers, but the wages of college-educated state employees had fallen further behind the pay of their private-sector peers. In New York state, the analysis found, state employees without college degrees earned almost one-third more than their peers in the private sector, while state employees with college degrees earned 4.5 percent less than their private-sector peers.

The value of health insurance plans, pensions and other benefits is often assumed to make up for the pay gap, but Mr. Braconi found that that was not generally true for the city’s 306,000 employees. Over all, he said, the cost to the city of contributing to its employees’ retirement is “roughly equivalent” to a corporation’s cost for contributing to a standard defined-contribution retirement plan.

The study is the first research published as part of Retirement Security NYC, Mr. Liu’s initiative to delve into the thorny political issue of public employee pensions. “These findings about municipal salaries are an important foundation for any discussion about public employee pensions,” Mr. Liu said. “The issue of retirement needs to be looked at in the context of the overall compensation package earned by public employees.”

So Liu's study finds that public employees with college degrees are actually UNDERPAID compared to their private sector counterparts, even when you take into account their benefit packages.

How did the Mayor of Money react to the study that Liu released today?

Defensively and with snark, of course:

Asked about Mr. Liu’s study, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said, “I have absolutely no idea where he gets those numbers; the last I’ve checked, his job was to audit the city’s books.”

Then the mayor added: “We’re not trying to pit one group against another. We’re trying to make sure that everyone in New York City has a good job and that they get to enjoy the American dream.”

Oh, sure , no divisiveness from the Mayor of Money, the guy who has pitted the rich vs. everybody else with his tax and development policies, veteran teacher vs. younger teachers with his layoff threats, and Manhattan vs. the Outer Boroughs with his snow removal.

Nor no class warfare from Bloomberg and his media cronies like Mort Zuckerman - the guy who said that 21st century America is divided between the "Haves" (public employees) and the "Have Nots" (everybody else.)

You notice how these guys always go to the "Let's not start a class war!" when they get called onto the carpet with facts and data for their policies that clearly favor the rich and elite over the middle and working classes?

Meanwhile they've been waging class warfare for the last 35 years, squeezing wages, eroding work protections and benefits, busting unions, and setting up a system that favors the very few over everybody else.

Hey, Moneybags, you love stats.

You always say the stats don't lie.

How come you don't like these stats?