More excellent and infuriating journalism by Kathy Gregg in today’s Providence Journal. Note that this is base salary only and does not include overtime pay (or benefits, of course).

So why do so many state workers make over $100,000?

There is no one reason the state’s online database now lists 1,378 state workers with salaries that top $100,000 beyond the obvious: year-after-year raises that over time have helped nudge the state payroll from $856.7 million in 2010 to a projected $1.01 billion this year; the push by every new governor to attract — and keep — the best and the brightest; sporadic efforts to “modernize” the salaries of select employees within Rhode Island’s “archaic” personnel system.

Really? These high and rising salaries are necessary to attract the best and brightest? Let’s try an experiment. Post every job on the state payroll with the salary reduced by 25%. See if you lack for genuinely best and brightest applicants. (Hint: better put some serious crowd control in place.)

Monique Chartier

Monique is a political gadfly, data junkie and contributor to the Ocean State Current and Anchor Rising.  Please consider supporting the terrific work of the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity here:

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