Anecdotal evidence is not very useful in determining whether our city workers are overpaid or underpaid. In any such large group there will be some overpaid slobs as well as some workhorses who give the city and its citizens far more in productivity than their annual pay. Among those whose output far exceeds their pay will be some $110k plus workers.
A better indicator might be turnover. How many city workers quit in order to work in the private sector? Darned few actually. This suggests they know they have a good thing.
BTW, compared to the private sector, what is costly to the employers (i.e., taxpayers), is benefits, not wages. The city workers know this and accordingly seldom quit because they like the safety and retirement benefits of government jobs. Who can blame them? The real blame lies with the spineless city councils that cave in to the unions’ demands.
