Within a week or so both the Keller Administration in Albuquerque and the Administration of Gov. Lujan-Grisham gave top officials double digit raises as high as 20% in a single year.
While we are assured that all of this is being touted as necessary to attract qualified people and “keep up with our neighbors,” the reality is that New Mexico government workers are already paid far better than are private sector workers. According to the group Key Policy Data which tracks and analyzes government data, “In 2016, New Mexico state & local #government compensation was 16% higher than in the private sector—the 16th highest ratio in the country and 21 percent above US average.”
This is of course 2016 data so it does not include the recent, massive raises given to top lieutenants and (smaller ones to more numerous) rank-and-file workers.
Very informative. I have no idea how you find this stuff.
Thanks, I just look and read all over the place and know people who do interesting work.
One reason for higher wages in the public sector is the misuse of employees in stultifying, unrewarding work. Another of course was the efforts of JFK to make public unions more easily created and powerful, the cause of much today’s public distress in paying too much for too little. And unsupportable public budgets. In addition, public employees, unlike private sector people, have very good benefits, including low personal investment retirement, more than regular raises, health and life insurance, and concentrated political power. This resulted from democrat control and enhanced it tremendously, to the detriment of this nation.
I have been a registered democrat for 50 years, and I recognize the single best means of re-regulating our economy is to eliminate public unions as much as possible, particularly in any and all jurisdictions that have or have had in the past any civil service-like protections of any kind.
Remember this: In nearly all private sector employment, work is temporary. Think of construction, or any business requiring marketing to enhance market position. Public? Just write a regulation, including those requiring union/”prevailing wage” conditions. These are not liberal capitalism, nor do they benefit it. These are socialist (Except many socialist/communist/national socialist leaders abhor trade unionism).
Socialism/(“universal equality”, which it most decidedly is not) more resembles indentured servitude and slavery
Only “useful idiots” such as the NY bartender think of capitalist nations with social programs as admirable socialists. Sweden? Norway? Not! Get real.
And remember: You cannot have a welfare state (Such as California) and open borders. You will run out of money.
I do support a broad reinvention of the “bracero” guest-worker program, and also a doubling of legal immigration and making of citizens from qualified workers, programs disassembled/killed in the 1960s. (Actually, this will almost make up for our abortion rate, but we would get productive, desirable workers as a result, without having to raise and educate the leftist eugenics-designated – perhaps they are ahead of their ideas?).
Killing the bracero program led quite directly to New Mexico’s “colonias”, and immigration changes to the unsupportable program of “families first”, a major increase in the welfare state.
Meanwhile, everyone overstaying a visa gets deported NOW.