How Many Mainers does it take to Fund One State Government Job?

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Read the full report | It takes 18 Mainers working in the private sector to fund one Maine state government job. This result is due to a combination of the low private sector compensation ($39,629 per job in 2006, 42nd highest in the country) versus high state government compensation ($48,080 per job in 2006, 29th highest in the country), on a per job basis. In the aggregate, in 2006, there were 28,108 state government workers in Maine earning $1,351,436,000 in compensation. As a result, it would take a total of 505,944 average private sector jobs to fund Maine’s state bureaucracy—nearly as many people that were employed in the private sector in 2006 (525,835).

Mainers are paying dearly for these 28,108 state government employees in the form of high taxes. According to recent research from The Maine Heritage policy Center, Maine state government has 5,258 too many jobs when compared to the national average. Eliminating these jobs would have saved Maine’s taxpayers up to $215,330,035 in 2006. Additionally, Maine state government pays too much per job when compared to the national average. In 2006, closing the compensation gap would have saved Maine’s taxpayers up to another $200,366,421.  With these savings, Maine’s state taxes as a percent of personal income could have been reduced by up to 11.1 percent, to 7.71 percent from 8.67 percent…