Despite Economy, Nevada Public Employee Pay Jumped to 6th Highest in United States

LAS VEGAS—Nevada public employees’ salaries continue to climb and they remain among the highest paid state and local government employees in the country. From 2006 to 2008, Nevada public employees jumped from the 8th highest paid up to the 6th highest paid, according to a new study released by the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce this week. Nevada’s state and local government employees were paid more than the national average in all but four of 29 job classifications.

Of the 29 job categories reviewed, Nevada’s public employees placed in the top five 18 times. Job classifications ranking in the top two nationally included: other fire employees and transit workers, both 1st in the nation; and judicial and legal and firefighters ranked 2nd highest nationally. All local government job classifications ranked in the top ten in the nation except for solid waste management workers, airports and elementary and secondary teachers.

The report shows that there continues to be variances between wages earned by state and local government employees. State workers’ average annual salary of $55,300 was 107 percent of the national average. Furloughs of state workers effectively lowered wages of state employees by nearly 5 percent, but occurred in 2009 and, therefore, are not included in 2008 statistics.

By contrast, local government employees (excluding teachers) make 131 percent of the national average. The report includes local and county government salaries throughout Nevada, in addition to Clark County, Las Vegas and Henderson.

Examples of local government employees pay in comparison to the national average include:

• Firefighters – 152% of the national average

• Correction – 140% of the national average

• Highways – 136% of the national average

• Financial Administration – 135% of the national average

While K-12 teacher pay increased somewhat from 93.6 percent of the national average in 2006, teachers in Nevada continue to be paid below the national average at 95.4 percent.

In addition, Nevada continued to rank dead last in terms of the number of state and local government employees per 1,000 residents, despite an increase from 41.4 public employees per 1,000 population in 2006 to 43.7 in 2008 The U.S. average is 54.8.

“The difference between the national average and Nevada’s public employee pay is more than three-quarters of a billion dollars a year. Factoring in the additional retirement costs associated with this pay gap brings the number to nearly a billion dollars each year,” says Steve Hill, chairman of the Chamber’s task force studying the issue. “It makes absolutely no sense for taxpayers to continue to pay public employees far above the national average, particularly during these tough economic times, while services to our community have been cut.Our current path is not sustainable and is simply not rational public policy.”

The report is based upon data obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau, Census of Governments, Survey of State and Local Government Employment and Payroll. The survey-based data include only wages and salaries and does not reflect employer contributions to health care, retirement and other employee benefits.

The report is part of a series of reports by Jeremy Aguero of Applied Analysis commissioned by the Chamber to help determine where taxpayer dollars are currently being spent and to provide a factual foundation from which to make informed public policy recommendations, particularly in light of the current economic climate.

In June 2008, the Chamber released the first two of these reports focusing on public employee salaries. Those reports found that Nevada’s average local government employee pay ranked 8th highest among public sector pay in the United States. The reports also revealed that, on average, a Nevada public sector employee is paid approximately 28 percent more than his or her private sector counterpart.

The full report can be found at www.lvchamber.com.

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