(Nathan Martin/The Union Label) – …but it ain’t my problem. That about sums it up.
To put things in perspective:
A public employee in Ohio making 48,724/yr actually takes home (before taxes) 41370. To pay that amount, it cost the state 60,393! IF we went to retirement matching and HSAs and non-union with that same $60,393 the actual salary would be $55,523 (a 13% raise). The take home before taxes would be $47883 (a 15.8% increase). That includes full health and investing 5000/year. Also keep in mind that is with the state putting 5000/year into the individuals HSAs. These roll over from year to year, so, if your family is healthy for 3 years you will have 15k in the account with your deductible at 5k. These HSAs are able to be passed to your children on death.
If you started at 22 and worked 30 years at an investment of 5,000/year, you would have over $950,000 at retirement with interest income of around 70,000/year. Unions give the compounding interest to the state, and NO medical account for your children either. That is with keeping the state contribution the same. If we kept the salary the same, the state would save that 15% and ensure that no one got furloughed or layed off.
But aside from the economics of what unions are costing workers and the flexibility they are costing administrators across the state, there is an issue of fairness. Just because the tax base “CAN” support increases in pay doesn’t mean that they should be obliged to and that leads us to the main reason why Governor Kasich and Ohio Republicans stood in support of SB 5, a bill in Ohio to eliminate collective bargaining in most instances for public sector employees.