Report: State employee salaries rising while K-12 underfunded

Oregon Senate Republicans

LFO Report Reveals State Employee Salaries Rising While K-12 Education Budget Remains Underfunded

Salem, Ore. – Last week, Oregon’s Legislative Fiscal Office (LFO) reported the average cost for a state employee in 2015, including salary and benefits, totaled $7,417 per month or $89,004 per year.

Private sector employees earned an average salary of $47,766 in 2015.

On average, Oregon state workers receive over $8,000 more per year in salary than private sector employees, the report reveals.

“Oregon’s state budget is out of control,” said Senate Republican Leader Ted Ferrioli (R-John Day). “Despite rising costs to fund bloated agencies, PERS liabilities topping $21 billion, and federal Medicaid payments coming to an end, Democrats gave state employees a 5 percent raise this year. Democrats plead for more funding for education, but are proving to Oregonians that they care more about protecting enormously generous health care benefits and PERS pensions for state employees than fully funding Oregon schools.”

According to the Oregon Employment Department, the number of workers employed by the State of Oregon has grown by 10 percent in the last five years. State employee salaries and benefits now total 10 percent of Oregon’s entire state budget.

“If Oregon can’t tighten its fiscal belt and put policies in place to strengthen our economy and grow our private sector workforce, Oregon’s budget is going to be in trouble next session,” said Ferrioli.