Friends with Benefits - Part 22 BART 70% Labor

We last looked at our FWB theme in January.  Mike Rosenberg's article in today SM County Times regarding BART's costs had a couple of interesting tidbits like

The average worker in BART's largest union, the local Service Employees International Union, earned $77,366 in gross pay and $32,235 worth of benefits in 2012. Their average benefits cost is up about 12 percent since 2010, the first year this newspaper began collecting benefits data, while gross pay has remained roughly flat since their last contract was signed in 2009.

Out of the $568 million operating budget for the fiscal year that began this month, BART plans to spend about 70 percent on labor and 30 percent on electrical power, equipment and other programs needed to run service.

That benefit to gross pay ratio is 41.7% or roughly two and a half times (250%) of the US private industry standard.  The top part of the article shows why.  It's definitely unsustainable!

 

Comments

[fred]

How does it compare to city and county benefits?

[Poppy Guy]

This whole BART strike issue disgusts me. It's a perfect example of what's wrong with unions today.

[Joe]

Even CNBC is starting to wake up to the issue:

Across the nation, cities and states are watching Detroit's largest-ever municipal bankruptcy filing with great trepidation. Years of underfunded retirement promises to public sector workers, which helped lay Detroit low, could plunge them into a similar and terrifying financial hole.

A CNBC.com analysis of more than 120 of the nation's largest state and local pension plans finds they face a wide range of burdens as their aging workforces near retirement.

Thanks to a patchwork of accounting practices and rosy investment assumptions, it's not even clear just how big a financial hole many states and cities have dug for themselves. That may soon change, thanks to a new set of government accounting standards that could serve as a nasty wake-up call to states and cities relying on rosy scenarios and head-in-the-sand accounting.

[fred]

Yet you won't state how BART benefts and pension compare to city of Burlingame benefits. Funny how this is a problem unless you're talking sharing services in Burlingame, then it's a Grateful Dead song.

[Joe]

Can't I leave some of the homework to you? The song lyric is right on target when we start talking about sharing services with a city that is in as tough shape financially as Millbrae. They don't even have their own police anymore--the County sheriff is policing their town. Not my idea of a good idea. But you are free to disagree.

[fred]

It's the same cops, they are on a county pension instead of a city one. They also had lawsuits related to officers.

Comparing BART benefits to private benefits is not a fair comparison. The private sector has nothing like the pension and health care benefits of BART or Burlingame.