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Ohio public workers get benefits totaling 88% of pay, study says
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
Public employees would still earn more than their counterparts in the private sector if the provisions of Senate Bill 5 were to take effect, according to a study released by a conservative think tank Wednesday.
As is, researchers from the American Enterprise Institute said public workers earn about 43 percent more than private-sector employees after accounting for retirement benefits, pensions and job security.
And that’s a conservative estimate, said Andrew G. Biggs, a resident scholar at the AEI and co-author of the study.
“Private sector workers, on average, receive benefits equal to around 40 percent of their salaries,” he said. “We find that public-sector workers in Ohio receive benefits equal to around 88 percent of their salaries.”
But opponents of Senate Bill 5 questioned the study’s methodology and results.
“I think it doesn’t really pass anyone’s basic logic that the people who pick up our trash and teach our kids... are getting rich off of those jobs,” said Amy Hanauer, founding executive director of Policy Matters Ohio, a liberal think tank that studied the issue and came to different conclusions.
The study was prepared for the Ohio Business Roundtable, a group of executives from major companies. Like-minded statewide business groups, including the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, have already endorsed Senate Bill 5, the controversial collective- bargaining law that will be decided by voters in November.
Senate Bill 5, appearing as Issue 2 on the ballot, would place limits on collective bargaining, changing the way about 350,000 public workers have negotiated contract terms for nearly three decades.
Opponents call the new law a politically motivated attack by Republicans on unions that will result in reductions in the ranks of teachers, police officers, firefighters and other public servants.
Proponents say the changes are needed to enable public offices to better control their costs.
The latter likely will use the Ohio Business Roundtable study to back up their position.
According to the study, public workers do earn slightly less (about 2.5 percent) than employees in comparable private sector jobs.
But their fringe benefits outpace the private sector, with health-care benefits and pensions twice as high as other workers and higher job security, Biggs said.
“The pensions in the public sector are really much, much more generous than what the typical private sector worker would get,” Biggs said. “And that’s really a driving factor in the overall compensation picture for public-sector versus private-sector worker.”
The study also concluded, “Even if the provisions of SB5 were implemented in full, it is very likely that Ohio public sector workers would continue to enjoy a substantial compensation premium over private-sector Ohioans.”
Hanauer said studies her group has done show that public-sector workers do earn less, salary-wise, than those in the private sector. But she questioned the other conclusions made in the Ohio Business Roundtable study, including those related to job security.
“I don’t think public-sector workers are feeling very secure right now,” Hanauer said, adding later, “I think they’re playing with the numbers. ... Public-sector workers generally get a little less in wages and they generally get a little more in some of the benefits. ... Public sector employees are modestly compensated for important jobs that help Ohio.”