Recession’s pain not felt equally

Tens of thousands of Oregonians make less money now than they did before the recession.

But it seems that very few of them work for state government.

Like their counterparts in the private sector, many state workers have had to cut back on their hours this year.

Friday, in fact, is the second of the 10 “furlough Fridays” in which most state workers (not including essential employees such as State Police) must take the day off without pay.

The purpose of the furloughs, according state officials, is to ease the burden on the already beleaguered state budget.

According to the state Department of Administrative Services, the average state employee will earn $897 more in compensation, including health insurance and other benefits, this year compared with last.

And this despite the average employee working 10 fewer days (including the two furloughs) in 2009.

Most of the increase is in salary — the average for public employee union members rose from $47,724 last year to $48,459 this year, according to the Department of Administrative Services.

State workers health insurance plan is amazingly generous, too — they don’t pay a penny of their premiums.

“Oregon taxpayers are essentially paying more for less service,” said state Sen. Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day.

Although we recognize that Ferrioli and other Senate Republicans distributed the salary/benefit statistics to make a political point, the numbers themselves are non-partisan, and unimpeachable.

State employees will work fewer days this year, which means state residents will receive fewer services for their tax dollars.

Yet those employees, on average, will make more money.

The logical conclusion here is that the state is short on money not because it doesn’t collect enough, but because it spends recklessly.

Businesses that require their workers to stay home do so for only one reason: to save money.

Certainly no business would long survive — especially during a recession — if it paid its employees more money to do less work.

And of course some businesses have resorted to more drastic measures than furloughs.

Some have simply cut their workers’ pay but kept their hours the same.

Others have laid off workers, a trend illustrated blatantly by Oregon’s unemployment rate, which has stayed above 10 percent for most of the year.

Oregon officials can continue to try to convince the public that state employees have suffered right along with the private sector workforce during these economic doldrums.

But their story will ring false so long as the state continues to pay its employees more while so many others get less.