Labor & Management
ONE FOR YOU, NINETEEN FOR ME
By Gary S. Howell
Jan 8, 2004, 12:23

Are you one of the lucky, single, per capita wage earners whose salary increased a whopping half of a percent last year. Didn't that extra $136 just put you into the lap of luxury.

Maybe you're living in a two income family? Does it really matter that median household income is falling. Last month's one and a half percent decrease isn't going to hurt.

Come on, with a per capita income of $26,947, Western New Yorkers are laughing all the way to the bank.

And, with a median household income of $42,409, families are casting aside their worries about paying the kid's college tuition and retirement for Mom and Dad.

Pity the poor folk who work for the town of Lancaster. In 2001, they got an insignificant three percent raise. In 2003, it was a mere four percent. In 2004, it was another measly four percent. In the last three years they've suffered through accumulated pay raises of over eleven percent.

How do theses folks get by?

The lowliest full-time worker only earns $32,073.00. That's right, the lowest paid, full-time, town employee earns a mere $5,124.00 more than the per capita wage earner.

Well, what is the median per capita income of full-time town employees? It's a pittance. $42,324.00

How do these people live.

The median per capita income of a full-time town employee is eighty-five dollars less than the median household income. In the majority of households, two people have to work to earn their $42,409. Well, I guess that's how they earn that extra eighty-five dollars.

Every full-time employee of the town of Lancaster earns more than the median, per capita income of private sector, full-time employees. Twenty-five employees earn more than the median household income.

And who's paying for these salaries? Worker's whose median income is less than the salary of the lowest paid, full-time town employee.

So who makes what?

Before that's revealed, here's some information about the chart below. The dollar amounts are taken from town resolutions passed on the first of January, 2004. The salaries of full-time employees who earn more than one paycheck are combined. For example, the supervisor earns a base pay of $61,273.00. He is also paid $6,684 to be the budget officer.

Western New York's median per capita income and median household income come from the New York State website. The dollar amounts apply to Erie County. But the statistics are two month's old. They reflect the median at the end of November 2003. Even so, private sector workers will have to receive massive pay raises in the next few months to catch up with town workers.