Detroit Council Aides get pay hikes.

[mam2009]

I'm ready to take my lumps on this one...

I don't see what's wrong with paying folks who are lawyers, have Master's degrees and/or years of institutional knowledge or experience a decent salary. Whatever they are making working for City Council is likely going to be less than what they would make in the private sector. Its probably on par with what other people with similar qualifications would make at a local non-profit [[whose resources are also limited). Except in this case, the City Council workers don't receive benefits. Case in point, due to the continuous rise in health care costs, right now a City worker's benefits are worth the quivalent of 50%* of their salary. That means if a City worker's salary is $60,000, the City pays an additional cost of $30,000 in benefits which means that that worker actually costs the City $90,000. I think that an attorney in a City Council office that makes $100,000 is fair considering how much it costs just to buy one's own health insurance. They also must buy life insurance, disability insurance, set up their own retirement accounts without the matching dollars that some employers provide, etc. Contractors aren't paying into the Unemployment Insurance either so they'd have to be saving their own money in case they were unemployed.

Why have I given this so much thought? Because I was recently laid off from my job with benefits and now must consider how much it would cost me to take on a job without benefits and not become another foreclosure statistic.

* I learned later that my 50% figure is outdated. The figure is now actually 77%.

[Pcm]

I'm ready to take my lumps on this one...

I don't see what's wrong with paying folks who are lawyers, have Master's degrees and/or years of institutional knowledge or experience a decent salary. Whatever they are making working for City Council is likely going to be less than what they would make in the private sector. Its probably on par with what other people with similar qualifications would make at a local non-profit [[whose resources are also limited). Except in this case, the City Council workers don't receive benefits. Case in point, due to the continuous rise in health care costs, right now a City worker's benefits are worth the quivalent of 50% of their salary. That means if a City worker's salary is $60,000, the City pays an additional cost of $30,000 in benefits which means that that worker actually costs the City $90,000. I think that an attorney in a City Council office that makes $100,000 is fair considering how much it costs just to buy one's own health insurance. They also must buy life insurance, disability insurance, set up their own retirement accounts without the matching dollars that some employers provide, etc. Contractors aren't paying into the Unemployment Insurance either so they'd have to be saving their own money in case they were unemployed.

Why have I given this so much thought? Because I was recently laid off from my job with benefits and now must consider how much it would cost me to take on a job without benefits and not become another foreclosure statistic.

Right now, it's not about what is a fair salary. They signed up for the job at the lower rate of pay.

What is important is while city services are being slashed, the lawyer with the comfy office is getting a raise.