Despite a push to diversify its economy, the Sacramento region still depends heavily on government wages.
The state employs roughly 75,000 workers in Sacramento County, excluding those working for its two college systems and the legislature. Collectively, they earned about $4.4 billion last year, far more than state workers in any other county, according to the State Controller's Office. State workers based in Yolo, El Dorado and Placer counties earned another $200 million.
As part of his proposal to close a $16 billion deficit, Gov. Jerry Brown wants to cut state worker pay by 5 percent (and introduce a four-day workweek for most state employees).
Cutting pay by 5 percent would take about $230 million in wages from Sacramento's economy, enough to potentially support a few thousand jobs. The cuts would represent a decline of about $1 for every $200 in wages earned in the region.
After years of growth, state wages have been stagnant recently, climbing slightly last year as furloughs ended. This chart shows how much state workers in the four-county region collectively earned during the past five years.
Source: State Controller's Office
Note: Updated Friday to distinguish between wages earned in Sacramento County and the other three counties in the region.
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
• Read more articles by Phillip Reese
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "Report Abuse" link to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
• Don't flag other users' comments just because you don't agree with their point of view. Please only flag comments that violate these guidelines.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "Report Abuse" link to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them.
Order Reprint
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "Report Abuse" link below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.