Press opinion: A tale of two paychecks

Public employees should not be paid based on how long they’ve held a job.

Certainly, experience is a factor. But as a key determinant of an employee’s value, longevity is lacking. Just because someone is a veteran staff member does not assure excellent results.

Where unions go, rewards follow incongruously. Actual performance is too often an afterthought, lightly applauded if acknowledged at all. Taxpayers want accountability from the people who work for them. They want to reward for results, not for the length of time somebody has occupied a certain seat. They want the structure for remuneration to make sense, but too often, it does not.

We offer for your consideration two real-life examples to support our thesis. They are only two, but they are two of many.

Public Employee A: This person just started his seventh year on the job. He was recently honored as the very best in his profession for the entire state of Idaho.

According to public records requested by this newspaper, Public Employee A was paid $31,750 his first year, his second year, his third year and his fourth year. He received no increases his first four years on the job, from 2008 through 2012. Now, starting his seventh year, he’s making progress. Public Employee A is being paid $38,276 a year.

Public Employee B: This person will soon finish his eighth year on the job. Unlike Public Employee A, this man had worked for almost a decade in another state, qualifying him for more steps up the union pay ladder.

According to a records request from this newspaper, when Public Employee B joined the local workforce in November 2006, he was paid $20.28 an hour, or $42,182 a year. He has received at least one raise every year since then except in 2009.

Between June 3, 2013 and June 16, 2014, however, Public Employee B received four raises. In that span of a year and two weeks, he received, at taxpayer expense, a 7 percent raise in June, a 2 percent cost of living increase in October, a 5 percent merit increase in March of this year, and another 5 percent pay raise on June 16, 2014. Thanks in part to that 19 percent overall increase from June 2013 to June 2014, base pay for Public Employee B is now $71,074.

Public Employee A is the reigning Idaho Teacher of the Year.

Public Employee B is the Coeur d’Alene police officer who shot Arfee.

Voters and taxpayers, this is the reward system you've approved.