By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

LANSING, Mich. – A new union survey shows Michigan public sector workers earn salaries above the national average for most jobs, and have moved from the middle of the pack to among the best paid in the nation since the last survey in 2008.

The 2012 American Federation of Teachers Public Employees State Employee Compensation Survey ranks 14,000 Michigan pubic workers in about four dozen job categories. The study shows base pay increases of 5 percent in recent year have pushed workers in the Great Lakes State toward the top nationally, up from average in 2008, the Lansing State Journal reports.

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Union bosses, however, say the union survey is misleading because Michigan’s state workers have agreed to furloughs and increased benefits costs in recent years, including 2012, when health insurance premiums were doubled to 20 percent, the news site reports.

Regardless, the differences in salaries for some professions are substantial.

“In a state with lush trees, Michigan foresters make a lot of green. Here, state-employed foresters earn an average of $58,401. In Minnesota, they earn $34,264,” the Journal reports. “Likewise state-employed transportation engineers in Michigan earn more than most other states. In Michigan, they make an average wage of $66,252; in neighboring Ohio, it’s $46,821.”

Even office assistants make substantially more than other states: an average of $38,440 compared to $19,074 in Mississippi.

As union officials prepare with contract negotiations with the state, James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy is hoping state negotiators reflect on the new survey results.

“I would hope they have a conversation about this,” Hohman told the Journal. “This is primarily why state government costs more every year.”

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The results of the AFT survey show that of the positions surveyed, all but five ranked above the national average, and in 16 categories Michigan workers ranked more than 10 percent above the national average. On the flip side, only six positions ranked in the bottom 50 percent in 2012, compared to the AFT’s 2008 survey that showed 21 of 42 positions in the bottom half, the news site reports.

Aside from the benefit increases, union officials also attempted to point to a 2009 survey by Michigan State University economics professor Charles Ballard that showed state employees with a bachelor’s degree earned only 72 percent of what their counterparts do in the private sector. Ballard is a union apologist who is known for producing analysis that favors Big Labor’s perspective.

But times have clearly changed since the 2009, as the AFT’s own surveys show. Unionized state workers in Michigan are doing very well, especially compared to workers in other states.

Phil Patrick, vice president of SEIU local 517M, attempted to convince the State Journal that Michigan’s cost of living, in terms of gas tax and housing costs, are much higher than other states, thus negating the higher pay.

Hohman set the record straight, however.

“That is simply not true,” Hohman told the Journal. “According to the cost of living index, Michigan is below average. And certainly the cost of housing is not high in Michigan” compared to other states.