Local government salary data now available from Buckeye Institute

Press Release from the Buckeye Institute:

Local Government Salary Data Added to Buckeye Institute Searchable Data Tools

COLUMBUS - The Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions today released its Local Salary data tool that contains the salary and estimated pension data for local government employees in Ohio. There are now eight searchable data tools on the Buckeye Institute website. The first jurisdiction loaded into the Local Salary searchable data tool is the City of Eastlake in Lake County, Ohio.

According to the data, the average salary for Eastlake city workers, police officers, and fire fighters is $55,436.09. Once benefits, including health insurance, dental insurance, life insurance, education bonuses, longevity pay, and employer pension contributions (which includes picking up a portion of the employee's pension contribution) are added, the average compensation package for Eastlake employees is $77,865.99. The total yearly cost for the 124 full-time workers is just under $10,000,000. Based on these salary figures, the yearly pension for an Eastlake employee is estimated to be roughly $36,000 per year and over $800,000 for an 18-year retirement.

In comparison, according to the most recent labor market data, the average yearly wage in Lake County for private sector workers is only $39,771. Because the labor contract negotiations with all three public sector unions representing Eastlake employees started on October 1, making the salary, benefit, and pension data for these government workers available to Eastlake taxpayers is very timely.

Buckeye Institute President Matt A. Mayer noted, "The public sector unions can try to ignore the economic reality faced by private sector taxpayers in Eastlake, but they can't ignore educated taxpayers themselves. Transparency puts pressure on public sector unions to share the pain felt in Ohio's private sector."

Since the launch of the new website on April 30, 2010, over 115,500 visitors from 443 Ohio cities have spent over 12,500 hours on the website doing more than 855,000 searches using the state government salary/pension, K-12 teacher salary/pension, federal government salary, higher education salary/pension, school performance, county economic, lobbyist, and tax calculator data tools.

The Buckeye Institute will add other local jurisdictions as they provide their data. The Local Salary data tool is available at www.buckeyeinstitute.org.


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