That’s something I’ve been wondering about, in light of a recent editorial in the Fond du Lac Reporter by Paul W. Sylvester, president of the Concerned Citizens of Fond du Lac County. In his editorial, Sylvester seems to argue Wisconsin’s public employees are overcompensated – by way of the benefits they receive – especially in comparison to the benefits received by workers in the private sector. Sylvester notes, “state-local government employees in Wisconsin received an average of $12,171 in fringe benefits in 2005, exceeding benefits for private sector workers by more than 50 percent,” but what he doesn’t take into consideration the pay that state and local government employees receive – pay which often fails to keep pace with the private sector. In response to Paul Sylvester’s editorial, Marty Beil, the executive director of the Wisconsin State Employees Union, AFSCME Council 24, wrote an editorial of his own.
As the recent hostage situation at Waupun Correctional Institution demonstrates, the public employees who staff our correctional facilities face dangers in their workplace that most of us wouldn’t want to confront for any amount of money.
But Paul Sylvester’s Nov. 15 commentary isn’t concerned about the modest pay, short staffing and dangerous workplaces correctional employees face. He’s concerned only about parroting one-sided statistics peddled by the corporate-directed Wisconsin Taxpayer’s Alliance, whose wealthy board members have a vested interest in maintaining the loopholes and special breaks they enjoy under Wisconsin’s skewed tax system.
In trumpeting the Alliance’s attack on public employee benefits, he leaves out an important part of the story. Looking at benefits in isolation doesn’t present anything close to an accurate picture. Like all working people, public employees are compensated by a mixture of salary and benefits.
For decades, most public employees have given up the potential for higher wages in exchange for maintaining health care that protects their families and retirement benefits that allow them to retire with the dignity they deserve.
Good people have been attracted to public service and have been willing to accept lower pay than they could have made in the private sector in exchange for a degree of stability.
Beil goes on to note the negative impact skyrocketing health care costs have had on the cost of benefits to state and local government workers, noting:
As one who has negotiated many contracts, I can tell you that the cost of supporting the health insurance bureaucracy is rapidly outpacing all other factors at the bargaining table. Public employees have been taking smaller and smaller cost-of-living increases (typically less than inflation) to offset the raging costs of health insurance.
It seems like anybody truly interested in saving money for taxpayers would be spending a lot of time and energy on pushing for a solution to the health care crisis.
Instead of blaming working people for simply trying to maintain decent coverage for their families, truly concerned citizens groups would be asking why Americans spend more money for health care than anybody else in the world.
Why do Americans pay far more but get statistically poorer outcomes than other industrial nations? Why do we pay more while leaving more than 47 million Americans with no coverage? Why are we willing to watch 30 cents of every health care dollar get gobbled up by a duplicative and inefficient health insurance bureaucracy?
The answer to those questions isn’t really that hard to find; one only needs look at our nation’s health insurance companies and their all-powerful lobbyists and trade groups to figure out why our health care system is as dysfunctional as it is. Too often, our elected officials are unwilling to confront the behemoths of the insurance and pharmaceutical companies that are profiting mightily from the current health care system. Instead, some would rather spew talking points about how health care reform will result in “socialized health care.” Ultimately, the answer to skyrocketing health insurance costs isn’t to try to take coverage away from those who still have it – the answer is to commit ourselves to finding ways to make health care more affordable and accessible for every American citizen.
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