State employee payroll totals

Posted byWill Brownsberger 2 Comments on State employee payroll totals

The spreadsheet below compares census data on state payroll as of March 2008 with March 2000, responding to comments on this post. Most areas other than higher education, which is not funded primarily on the state budget, show cuts. The increase in higher education more than accounts for the growth in state employment — without higher education, the total would be decreasing. Post recession data would show deeper cuts — March 2008 was in the last budget before the recession hit.

The annualized payroll per full-time-equivalent employee grew at 3.4% in state government during this period — essentially the same as private sector wage growth: Department of Labor data go back only to 2001, but according to DOL, private sector wages grew at 3.3% annually from 2001 to 2008, while state wages grew at 3.4% (private sector weekly wages grew from 876 to 1102 and state government weekly wages grew from 883 to 1118 from 2001 to 2008).

1 State Government Employment March 2000 March 2008 Change
2 FTE Payroll Payroll*12/FTE FTE Payroll Payroll*12/FTE #FTE %FTE % Pay/FTE/yr
3 Total 95,582 345,257,144 43,346 97,601 462,154,980 56,822 2,019 2.1% 3.4%
4 Financial Administration 4,730 17,097,814 43,377 4,105 20,890,609 61,069 -625 -13.2% 4.4%
5 Other Government Administration 2,068 6,763,666 39,248 1,844 7,314,975 47,603 -224 -10.8% 2.4%
6 Judicial and Legal 10,228 36,783,421 43,156 10,141 49,962,504 59,121 -87 -0.9% 4.0%
7 Police Protection Total
(1)		 5,469 20,205,914 44,336 6,666 37,995,918 68,399 1,197 21.9% 5.6%
8 Corrections 7,029 27,881,890 47,600 6,100 28,796,021 56,648 -929 -13.2% 2.2%
9 Highways 4,267 17,165,908 48,275 3,594 19,359,061 64,638 -673 -15.8% 3.7%
10 Air Transportation 1,179 6,188,048 62,983 1,013 6,109,409 72,372 -166 -14.1% 1.8%
11 Water Transport Terminals 163 760,295 55,973 160 960,318 72,024 -3 -1.8% 3.2%
12 Public Welfare 7,521 26,060,398 41,580 7,084 34,337,106 58,166 -437 -5.8% 4.3%
13 Health 7,868 26,138,600 39,866 7,805 31,528,210 48,474 -63 -0.8% 2.5%
14 Hospitals 8,663 25,969,950 35,974 7,784 31,527,223 48,603 -879 -10.1% 3.8%
15 Social Insurance Administration 1,547 5,600,017 43,439 1,363 6,368,668 56,070 -184 -11.9% 3.2%
16 Sewerage 1,233 5,068,770 49,331 885 5,442,505 73,797 -348 -28.2% 5.2%
17 Parks and Recreation 968 2,728,373 33,823 613 2,417,215 47,319 -355 -36.7% 4.3%
18 Natural Resources 1,236 5,242,724 50,900 1,275 6,843,055 64,405 39 3.2% 3.0%
19 Water Supply 722 2,788,581 46,348 531 3,153,785 71,272 -191 -26.5% 5.5%
20 Higher Education Total 25,680 92,614,653 43,278 30,058 134,100,961 53,537 4,378 17.0% 2.7%
21 Other Education 1,099 4,329,478 47,274 1,337 6,973,232 62,587 238 21.7% 3.6%
22 All Other Unallocable 3912 15,868,644 48,677 5,243 28,074,205 64,255 1,331 34.0% 3.5%

FTE and Payroll Data from the Bureau of the Census
March 2008
March 2000

Published by Will Brownsberger

Will Brownsberger is State Senator from the Second Suffolk and Middlesex District.

2 replies on “State employee payroll totals”

  1. Thanks for all that. I’d also love to see columns comparing private employers and municipalities, and % change. (right, always want more…) What’s the cost of living / CPI increases over this period?

    By comparison, my salary was about 17% higher in 2008 than 2000 – an annual growth rate of ~2%. I’ve fallen behind state and private workers, and I don’t like it. And my pension is… oh, wait, I don’t get a pension.

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