A Public Sector Worker Paradise in California

The folks at Bloomberg saw fit to compile data on 1.4 million public employees in the nation’s 12 most-populous states and presented their findings in this story today that includes the graphic below.

Regarding that surging lump sum payout curve to the right, former California Governer Gray Davis had this to say: “I find it offensive that people who work for the state try to turn around and abuse the state through inflated overtime claims and lump-sum payouts. We have high salaries, they have to come down. There was a time when we could afford them, but we can’t now”.

It should come as no surprise that the top-to-bottom order of the states in the graphic (reflecting high-to-low pay) is highly correlated to political affiliation (Democrat-to-Republican) and, to a large degree, also real estate prices (high-to-low) and probably some other related metrics that do not immediately come to mind.

When we lived in California, we’d often hear stories about the monstrous McMansion at the end of the cul-de-sac that was owned by a 52-year old retired firefighter or about how the enclave of police officers in the upscale housing development not far away.  Apparently it’s much worse now.