Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012

Government pay picture isn't that bad

It is true that employees of Johnston County government haven't enjoyed a pay raise since the 2008-09 budget year, a fact noted recently by a sympathetic county commissioner. But the compensation picture for county employees could be much worse, which means commissioners should be reluctant to restore annual raises until stagnant county revenue improves.

In the recession that supposedly ended in late 2009, the private sector in the United States shed about 8.4 million jobs, and the country's jobless rate reached 10 percent. In that time, Johnston County government laid off one building inspector and shed two or three other jobs when state and federal dollars dried up.

County employees still have their jobs, and that's no small thing in the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression.

The employees also have health insurance, which costs them nothing if they cover only themselves with the standard policy. They pay only if they cover family members or choose a more generous plan for themselves. The tab for county employee health insurance cost taxpayers more than $5 million last year.

County employees also continue to enjoy a pension system that pays a guaranteed benefit no matter the financial health of county government. Most private-sector employers long ago switched to defined-contribution plans in which employers match dollars their employees put into retirement accounts. In the recession, some companies froze older pension plans and stopped contributing to their employees' retirement accounts. County employees in Johnston dodged that pension bullet.

It's worth noting too that wages in county government have not shrunk, which happened in the private sector.

We're quite certain that county government employees are hard-working, dedicated folks who deserve raises after a years-long drought. But we can say the same of private-sector workers in Johnston County. They, too, have suffered stagnant wages - or worse - and until they're back on their feet, we'd ask county government employees to be patient on their pay and mindful of the plight of many of their neighbors, some of whom don't even have a paycheck.