Government jobs offer good pay, benefits |
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Of course, in many states accountants are paid less. Vermont, the least lucrative state for accountants, has
a mean salary of $41,180. North Dakota, Idaho, Arkansas and South Dakota are next, ranging from $43,120 to $47,980.
But there's another factor to consider when comparing jobs: benefits.
These things add up
Joe Koenig, 27, has worked in the information technology industry for a decade. He started in the private sector as a programmer. Then he went
to work with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, a government agency Koenig says has around 2,000 employees.
He started as a program efficiency coordinator, but
within six months was named the agency's chief information officer
in charge of a staff of 130, as well as a $16 million budget.
Koenig, now an executive with a technology firm called
Creative Anvil, says that he made around $75,000 a year. "An entry-level
programmer with a college degree would earn about $35,000 a year,"
he says. But the real draw wasn't the pay -- it was the benefits.
Employees paid a portion of their health and dental insurance. "However, the cost was very minimal,"
Koenig says.
Liberal sick leave and vacation benefits folded into a package that included retirement (Missouri uses an
"80 and out" system, which means any combination of the employee's age plus years of service adding up to 80 makes the
employee eligible for retirement).
"The pension is based on years of service and a few other factors. However, it can end up being as high as
88 percent of your pay while you were working," Koenig says.
Scott Barer, a 50-year-old attorney, once worked for
the Los Angeles Unified School District, and is now a private practitioner
specializing in labor and employment law. Barer says he pulled in a
salary that was "not so far from the private sector," with defined
benefits that included sick and vacation leave.
Now that Barer is on his own, taking a day off reduces his income-earning potential, but he says it's worth
it. He relishes the freedom afforded by private practice.
"What's the price of being happy?" he says.
Number crunching by the hour
A 2002 benefits study conducted by the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce said at that time, employers paid an average of about $18,000
per person in benefits -- and that was the private sector, where
benefits are generally not as generous as the government's.
In December 2007, the Bureau of Labor Statistics put
the average cost to a private-sector employer of an employee at
$28.11 per hour. Wages accounted for $19.62, or 69.8 percent of
the cost, meaning that $8.49 went to benefits.
In comparison, state and local governments incurred total compensation costs of $37.73. Of that amount,
$25.04 went to actual wages (68.9 percent -- less than a percentage point below the private sector), while $12.69 was spent
on benefits, nearly 50 percent more.
Retirement contributions comprised one major difference
between the two. While private-sector employers paid $1.24 per hour
in retirement benefits (defined and contribution plans), state and
local governments paid $2.86. That's 4.4 percent for private employers
versus 7.6 percent for state and local government.
Additionally, state and local government retirement plans are more heavily weighted toward defined retirement
benefits (pension plans) than the private sector. Although the majority of civilian retirement plan dollars are spent on defined
benefits, contribution plans such as 401(k)s are rapidly gaining in popularity.
Payson Cooper, a managing member of Payson and Co.
LLC, an upscale jewelry design company, once wrote grants for a consulting
company that contracted with New York City.
Cooper, who turned down the city's offer of a permanent job, says she chose not to make the employment switch
because it would have meant a pay cut, but she recognized there were long-term benefits to the job.
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