Cost of CA Public Employee Pay, Benefits Soar

Just get out while you can

Last week Bloomberg News reported that California has the highest paid state workers in the 12 largest states by population.  But that didn't tell the entire story.

Sure, California has the highest paid public workers. But it also has the highest median income. Adjusting for median income levels, California still has one of the highest levels of public employee pay, as shown in Table A below.

But that doesn't tell the bigger story about the huge submerged public pension iceberg approaching California.  It isn't only pay levels, but benefit levels that are going to overwhelm California local government budgets.