As the largest single metropolitan area in the U.S., New York City garners more attention than any other. And as municipal pay scales remain a leading topic on the news, many cities are comparing their payrolls to New York's.
Santa Clara is no exception.
However, in many respects Santa Clara and New York City are poles apart – and not just geographically.
First off, New York's population is about 70 times larger than Santa Clara – 8,392,000 compared to 119,000. So while NYC's equivalent of a City Attorney earns less than Santa Clara's, New York has more than 150 attorneys on its payroll to share the workload.
Add to that the municipal baggage of 400 years of history in the form of added layers of municipal structures such as borough governments; the need for which is unclear in the modern world.
Further, New York operates its schools and colleges directly, as well as its own residential garbage collection – making the ratio of city employees to residents seem higher. So it's not all apples-to-apples comparisons.
Despite these caveats, though, Santa Clarans can be proud of operating significantly more efficiently than NYC. Even removing the NYC department of education's over 170,000 employees from the calculus, New York's ratio of municipal employees to residents is 1:35, while Santa Clara's is 1:119.
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| Maybe New York City's employees are due for a raise. Widespread public attention to municipal salaries following the Bell, CA scandal, has highlighted that many employees of the country's largest city make less than their counterparts in small cities such as Santa Clara. |
When it comes to pay scales, however, a look at some NYC salaries reveals that despite the exponential increased complexity of managing a city of New York's size, that city's employees make less on the whole than Santa Clara city employees.
For example, NYC's police commissioner supervises a force of about 35,000, but makes 25 percent less than Santa Clara's police chief. On the other hand, Santa Clara's Streets Supervisor makes only two-thirds of New York's Sanitation Department Supervisor.
When it comes to the biggest single paycheck, New York City wins hands down, however. Last year one NYC Educational Administrator representative to the Council of School Supervisors & Administrators (CSA, Local 1 AFL-CIO) topped the chart, earning a grand total of $311,907. When it comes to base pay, though, NYC's most highly paid position is Chancellor of Education, with a $250,000 salary. Santa Clara's, on the other hand, is its City Manager at $285,000.
You can find out about every penny of every expenditure in New York State and City at www.seethroughny.net. To find out more about Santa Clara's budget and expenses, visit the City's website. Printed copies of the City Budget are also available for review at the Central City Library. Carolyn Schuk can be reached at cschuk@earthlink.net.
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