The Nightmare Ahead: 19 US Cities Have More Public Workers per Resident than Detroit

Source: Economic Policy Journal

Detroit declared bankruptcy due in no small part to $3 billion in unfunded public employee pensions as a result of a massive city workforce that kept growing even as the city’s population shriveled, but a Washington Examiner analysis found that 19 major American cities have even bigger ratios of such workers to residents. Here's the report from WE showing the number of residents per municipal employee.

1. WASHINGTON DC

   

   Residents per employee	25
   Population:	601,723
   Employees:	23,631
   Annual payroll:	$1,738,914,588
   Average salary:	$73,586
   What's not included?
   Back to map

2. SAN FRANCISCO

   

   Residents per employee	28
   Population:	805,235
   Employees:	28,660
   Annual payroll:	$2,564,000,376
   Average salary:	$89,462
   What's not included?
   Back to map

3. BATON ROUGE-EAST BATON ROUGE

   

   Residents per employee	30
   Population:	229,493
   Employees:	7,566
   Annual payroll:	$336,309,768
   Average salary:	$44,450
   What's not included?
   Back to map

4. NEW YORK

   

   Residents per employee	32
   Population:	8,175,133
   Employees:	252,701
   Annual payroll:	$18,645,049,116
   Average salary:	$73,783
   What's not included?
   Back to map

5. RICHMOND

   

   Residents per employee	39
   Population:	204,214
   Employees:	5,183
   Annual payroll:	$245,372,376
   Average salary:	$47,341
   What's not included?
   Back to map

6. BALTIMORE

   

   Residents per employee	43
   Population:	620,961
   Employees:	14,438
   Annual payroll:	$705,692,760
   Average salary:	$48,877
   What's not included?
   Back to map

7. NORFOLK

   

   Residents per employee	44
   Population:	242,803
   Employees:	5,512
   Annual payroll:	$252,770,712
   Average salary:	$45,858
   What's not included?
   Back to map

8. BIRMINGHAM

   

   Residents per employee	44
   Population:	212,237
   Employees:	4,749
   Annual payroll:	$230,290,992
   Average salary:	$48,492
   What's not included?
   Back to map

9. DENVER