Report: San Diego payroll ballooned in 2008

The city’s payroll rose by $41 million last year, thanks to unpublicized payouts, labor settlements and costly benefits, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported today.

The ballooning payroll belies rhetoric about frozen salaries from the mayor and about cost reductions from labor leaders. City employee compensation grew by 6 percent last year, nearly twice the average increase for local and state government employees nationwide, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Private industry salary increases averaged 2.6 percent, The Union-Tribune reported. An analysis of salary, overtime and other compensation paid to each of the city’s 12,000 full-time, part-time and seasonal workers showed that:

– About 80 percent of city employees took home more money in 2008 than the previous year.

– Nearly 900 employees received pay increases exceeding 10 percent last year.

– About 1,400 workers saw double-digit increases when overtime was factored in.

– The proportion and number of city employees making at least $100,000 have almost tripled in the past six years.

Thirteen percent of the payroll is in this top category. Last year’s $41 million boost in payroll was more than the increases of the past four years added together, the newspaper reported.

It was equivalent to the city giving an additional $3,400 to each employee. The payroll boost helps put into perspective the $43 million in wage and benefit reductions that will take effect July 1 to address a budget gap.

Sanders portrays the 6 percent reductions as historic and difficult, yet the savings are about the same as last year’s growth in payroll. Sanders declined interview requests from The Union-Tribune for more than two weeks, then held a news conference Thursday to say payroll expenses for the fiscal year were down slightly.

Police and fire personnel received hikes twice during the year. Overtime pay surged by 12 percent last year, largely among police officer and firefighter ranks, the newspaper reported. David Monroe, a parks manager, got one of the city’s largest raises last year.

His 27 percent boost in pay to $120,700 catapulted him into the city’s fastest-growing income group, those making $100,000 or more.

Tags: millions, payroll, SDNN, Uncategorized

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