LIMA — Della Bradford knows there’s a change in thinking when you consider working for the government.
When Lima’s human resource director meets with candidates, first she emphasizes the importance of becoming a civil servant, meeting the needs of the community.
Eventually, the conversation shifts to some of those deductions people have taken out of their checks.
“I’ve never had a person to really have it be a deal-breaker, let’s put it like that,” Bradford said. “But we do have a conversation, making sure our new candidates and new hires know that they will not be paying into Social Security. I think they appreciate you telling them that up front.”
Each year, The Lima News publishes lists of the top wage-earners at regional municipalities. This marks the 31st annual public salary review by the newspaper.
What those numbers don’t tell you is what’s deducted from those wages.
Government workers don’t pay into Social Security like private-sector jobs do. They aren’t able to draw from that program when they retire based on their government earnings either. Instead, they pay into the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System.
Most municipal employees pay 10% of their wages into OPERS, said Robert Benroth, Putnam County’s auditor. Area governments kick in the remaining 14% of their salary, funding them at 24% of their annual salary invested in their retirement accounts.
Those numbers are a bit higher for public safety employees’ contributions (12%) and law enforcement employees (13%). The contributions help fund the state’s pension fund.
“When the employee would retire, there would be that retirement system, just like any other retirement system based on years of service, people’s ages, that sort of thing,” Benroth said.
Those percentages mean government employees see less of their earnings than private-sector employees, who pay 6.2% of their earnings into Social Security. The trade-off is they’re eligible to retire after 30 or 35 years of service, depending on the type of job they have, Benroth said.
It can be complicated depending on how many years someone’s worked in the private sector on whether they’re willing and able to make the jump, since Social Security and OPERS both look for certain levels of service before you can draw from them. Now, OPERS makes new employees choose from one of three plans, a traditional pension plan, a member-directed plan or a combined plan.
Everyone, whether in the public or private sector, pays the same shares of local, state and federal income taxes and Medicare taxes.
Would-be employees are generally excited about the possibility of working for the government, as benefits are generally better than the private sector. Most private companies only match 3 to 6% of retirement contributions, for instance.
“We usually get a pretty good response on job advertisements,” said Don Harrod, village administrator in Minster in Auglaize County. “Some of the more critical positions, like police officer or, in our case, where we have our own electric department, things like that get to be a little more of a challenge.”
Offering competitive benefits helps, and not all government agencies offer identical plans. Bradford noted she previously worked at the Ohio Department of Transportation before joining the City of Lima, and she was pleasantly surprised to find better coverage and premiums with Lima.
“I think they come in with the expectation that they’re believing that benefits are going to be better in regards to health care, prescriptions, dental and vision, that type of deal,” Bradford said. “When we do discuss those things, they find out that not only are we competitive with private industry, our insurance is even better than the state’s.”
It’s a good benefit for a good job to support your community, Benroth said.
“I care that Putnam County stays strong,” he said. “It’s a wonderful place to live and raise a family, and it’s our goal that we keep it that way. We have a good group of people that I think have good intentions.”
That goes back to the first thing Bradford talks about with potential government hires, the willingness to serve.
“They are civil servants, meaning that they work for the constituents of our community,” she said. “Tha’s a big responsibility, and we take that role and our responsibility very seriously in regards to our policies, procedures and things of that nature.”
