In Montana’s Public Sector, the Rich Get Richer

After months of legal battles and number crunching, the Montana Policy Institute has finally posted the public employee pay numbers that it received from the State of Montana after winning it's case before Judge Dorothy McCarter.

Montana Policy Institute CEO Carl Graham says that "The site is nonjudgmental about whether the numbers are too high, too low, or just right . . . but it does put the lie to recent statements that state employee pay has been frozen."

After looking through the numbers for a while, what I was most surprised by was what seems like a socially callous distribution of pay increases. For those making less than $50,000 (i.e. most Montana workers) salaries and associated perks (insurance, bonuses, e.t.c.) has flatlined or gone down since the halcyon days of 2004.

Most workers that made more than $50,000, on the other hand, received pay or benefits increases, with those that make more than $75,000 coming out even further ahead than the rest of their higher earning peers. To make the picture even more vivid the group showing the biggest gains in the last three years just happens to be those making over $100,ooo.