Thursday, September 15, 2011

Why we need SB 5

Why do we need a better way of controlling the costs of public sector workers?
A new report out yesterday found that Ohio public sector workers are paid 43.4 percent more than those in the private sector, when you thrown in wages, benefits (including retirement), and the value of job security.

The report was conducted by two experts from the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute for the Ohio Business Roundtable. Ohio voters this fall will decide whether to keep or repeal Senate Bill 5, which limits the collective bargaining rights of government workers.

Report highlights:

• Ohio public employees receive nearly the same wages as comparable private workers (2.5 percent less)

• Fringe benefits for Ohio public workers are more than twice as generous as those paid in the private‐sector, meaning that when pay and benefits are taken into consideration public workers receive 31.2 percent more in total compensation than private‐sector counterparts.


More.....

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If I'm not mistaken, SB5 does not limits workers' rights to stike for wages, it only limits their right to strike for the more intangibles such as pension benefits.

Here's what got us into this mess: The willingness of politicians to make unrealistic promises to unions that someone else to keep (decades down the road). The easy-to-hide costs of pension ponzi's make them easy to slip past taxpayers.

Even after SB5 is upheld, there's no reason public unions can't strike over pension benefits. They just have to plan on funding their pension out of wage deductions. If current wages are not sufficient to fund pension contributions, STRIKE for higher wages! That will still be legal.

The only difference is that a strike for higher wages will require unions to make a business case to the taxpayer that they are worth the wages they request. I understand that they might not always be able to make such a business case work, and that is what they fear, BUT that's really the only way to be honest with taxpayers.