In his comment to my last post, andy asked: “what proof do you have that [MBTA employees] are highly paid?”

Well, I thought it was pretty well-known.

According to a report from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics: “MBTA’s annual operating deficit is second only to New York’s. A major reason for this situation is the fact that Boston’s transit work force is among the highest paid in the country…. Other reasons include MBTA’s outdated equipment and the fact that it generates much of its own power in inefficient, oil-burning power plants.”

Another tidbit of relevant information from the Pioneer Institute, in a report in 2002: “Between 55 percent and two-thirds of the T’s budget is labor costs, which are among the highest, if not the highest, of any major transit system in the United States. We have the highest paid bus drivers in the country, and we’re near the top in virtually every other category.”

And just for good measure, The Beacon Hill Institute reported back in ‘99: “T employees…are the highest paid workers among comparable transit authorities in the nation. An MBTA delivery person makes $21.85/hr plus benefits compared to $14.38/hr for a delivery person working for the Maryland Transit Authority (Baltimore) and $15.96/hr for the New Jersey Transit Authority. A general helper makes $19.83/hr compared to general helpers for the New York Transit Authority who make $16.23/hr. The report also found 20% of the MBTA’s budget goes toward administrative costs and 31% to fringe benefits, which is higher than similar transit authorities.” Remember, that was in ‘99. On the fly, I couldn’t find more recent numbers, but I’ll keep looking. You can be sure that in the intervening years wages have not fallen, though.

Part of the reason for the high cost of labor is the strong union, of course. I’m going to leave off for now talking about that. I’m all for workers’ rights, but unions just seem to breed a certain mentality–they seem, in fact, to produce workers like the one I encountered yesterday afternoon.

By the way, there’s an interesting article here about worker absenteeism on the T from The MBTA Advisory Board. It’s from 2005. It contains more evidence of bloated pay (in italics). Among its findings:

“Assuming that every day of absence, at least in the bus and subway division, needs to be covered either by employing additional operators and technicians or paying employees overtime to work extra shifts, the high absenteeism levels translate into significant costs for the Authority. We estimate that a reduction of the average number of days in the bus and subway division by one day (from 19.69 and 19 days average respectively) could yield $484,640 in savings by avoiding overtime or the need to hire additional employees (based on an annual salary of $50,000, 240 work days and a premium of 50% either for overtime worked or for benefits paid to additional employees).

“Cutting the average days absent in half for both divisions consequently could lead to over $4 million in savings. While there are additional costs involved in monitoring and enforcing attendance policy as well as creating incentive programs, the projected savings far outweigh the cost of the programs and could contribute to closing the $10 million gap in the FY2006 budget.”