Report: Calif. Leads Nation In Paying Exorbitant Salaries To Workers
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — California state employees are the best paid in the nation across all job and wage categories, according to a report from Bloomberg.
According to the report, which looked at the salaries of government workers in the 12 most populous states in the nation, California workers make an average of $60,000 annually. New York's workers rank No. 2 with an average annual salary of $56,000 and New Jersey at No. 3 with $52,000.
Individual salaries are even more outrageous. According to the report, one state prison psychiatrist took home a salary of more than $800,000 in 2011. A California Highway Patrol division chief retired as the highest paid trooper in all 12 states in the study, with more than $483,000 in salary, pension and other compensation.
"Even if those examples are not representative of the broader state employee population, it's the kind of thing that leaves a mark and really resonates with the voters," said USC Professor Dan Schnur, director of the Unruh Institute of Politics.
The report comes on the heels of the passage of Proposition 30 tax increases, which Gov. Jerry Brown urged voters to approve to save the state's broke schools.
