IN YOUR CORNER

 

A recent letter to the editor designed to discredit the Taxpayers

Association badly misstated the facts as well as the Association's

position on allowing  wetlands mitigation.  The fact is the  County

Commission voted to allow mitigation only for public projects

constructed inside the urban services area. No private development is

affected by this change; it can save the taxpayers of Martin County a

lot of money as new schools, fire stations and other public facilities

are needed.  In a recent column we restated MCTPA’s long held position

that wetlands mitigation is a reasonable land management strategy.  This

position is based on balancing public benefits and taxpayer costs with

private interests.

 

We believe wetlands are good, that they serve multiple purposes

including stormwater management, and the more wetlands we can have both

inside and outside the urban services area, the better off we will be in

the long run. However, all wetlands are not of equal value. Mitigation

is very intensely regulated, based  on how the wetlands function, and is

one tool of many to encourage optimum long-term integration of wetlands

and other environmental values into our community.

 

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Few issues elicit stronger opinions than that of compensation  of

government workers, especially teachers.  One extreme side believes that

teachers are the most overworked, overstressed and underpaid

professionals in the world.  On the other end of the spectrum are those

who believe teachers have an easy job, too much time off, excellent

benefits and great pay.

 

We wish to provide a framework to analyze this contentious issue.  In

order to analyze this, we must first define what one's compensation is.

Our definition includes salary, benefits and time off.  An example

illustrates why.

 

John is a recent college graduate who is self-employed.  By working an

average of 50 hours a week and taking no more than a two week vacation,

John will earn $36,000 his first year out of college.  As an independent

contractor he will receive no benefits.

 

John's college roommate, Sam, takes a professional job that pays $27,000

to start.  Sam's employer had enticed Sam with benefits.  As part of

Sam's employment package, his employer will research, analyze,

negotiate, fund and manage a retirement program, a medical program, and

an accounting service to withhold, report and pay state and federal

taxes that are Sam's liability.  Sam will receive 3 personal days, 5

sick days,  and 44 days vacation the first year.  If Sam stays with his

employer for five years, Sam will basically be  guaranteed employment

until Sam retires.  Sam will be eligible for early retirement in 20

years or Sam can stay until 65 and receive full retirement benefits,

which include the retirement and medical benefits earned from the taxes

his employer paid for him while he was working.  The benefit package is

estimated to be worth at least $7,000 per year.  Sam will only pay

taxes  on his $27,000 base salary.

 

For John to have the same benefits as Sam, John will have to pay out

much more than $7,000 per year as John does not have the economy of

scale that Sam's employer has in hiring people to handle a benefit

package.  John compensates by spending his own time and energies on

researching, analyzing, negotiating and funding a retirement program and

a medical program.  John spends his own time calculating and reporting

his taxes for each pay period and filing his own quarterly and yearly

reports required by government agencies.  In spite of using his own

unpaid time to compensate for the difference in the the way benefit

packages are created, John will still not end up with the same base

salary of $27,000 as Sam because taxes in John's case are based upon his

$36,000 earnings not on his net $27,000.

 

We hope this illustrates that the terms salaries, wages, compensation

and earnings are used too often without any understanding of what is

being covered in the way of total benefit to the recipient and cost to

the employer.

 

Now for some of the fiscal facts as they relate to Martin County

teachers' salary and benefits;  The starting salary for a new teacher is

$27,000 per year.  In addition to paying for federally mandated

retirement and medicare, the county supplies health insurance, vision

care, life insurance, dental insurance, early retirement options,

employment insurance.  The total cost of these benefits, not including

the full administrative costs is $7,010/year for a person making

$27,000/year bringing the total compensation package to slightly over

$36,000/year.

 

The current maximum salary range for a teacher is a little over

$48,000/year plus approximately $13,000 worth of benefits for a total

yearly compensation of approximately $61,000.  Please note that all

professionals, including teachers, may work many hours outside of what

is required by their employers. .  A teacher is required to work 196

days per year as compared to 240 for a typical professional employee.  A

teacher is required to be at county facilities 7 * hours a day, but not

all that time is spent teaching.  A professional employee is generally

required to be at work for 8 hours a day.  Many professional occupations

can lead to very high paying jobs for a small percentage of people; this

is far less true of the teaching profession.  Stress levels are related

not only to the profession and the training and personality of the

professional but also to the objectives of the professional and how his

performance is being measured by his employer.  The regional area where

one must work can play a large part in how a professional is

compensated. All these factors and more contribute to what professionals

are paid.

 

So what is a fair compensation for a teacher? An architect? An engineer?

A manager? A salesperson? An anyone?  Should any individual or group of

individuals dictate wage scales for professionals?  Capitalism assumes

that, in a free market, wages are ultimately determined by the

difficulty in finding qualified people to work in a given profession.

Pay too little and people will not go into the profession, too much and

competition will eventually force wages down. The government can

positively and negatively affect the workings of that free economy

principle; it has an obligation to its citizens to act thoughtfully and

responsibly in these matters.   Compensation is a complicated issue and

those who choose to speak out have an obligation to be as knowledgeable

as possible. We will provide information on other departments in the

future.