By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CITY HALL — City workers are paid 17 percent less, on average, than their colleagues in the private sector, according to a new report released Wednesday by City Comptroller John Liu.
"While some columnists and politicians have painted public sector employees as 'the new fat cats' or the 'new privileged class,'" the study reads, it concludes that compensations for private and public sector workers are roughly equal, even when pensions and health benefits are taken into account.
"Employer costs of retirement benefits for NYC civilian workers, including teachers, are not fundamentally different than the retirement benefit costs of other large employers," the study reads.
But Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has charged that skyrocketing pension costs are bankrupting the city, dismissed the findings — as well as Liu, who released the study as part of a larger effort to protect public workers' retirement benefits.
"I have absolutely no idea where he gets those numbers," Bloomberg told reporters at a press conference at City Hall on Wednesday. "The last I checked, his job was to audit the city contracts and the books and I just have no idea what he’s done."
While Bloomberg acknowledged not having read the study, he noted that Liu's salary figure does not include benefits, and said that comparing salaries "has nothing to do with anything."
"Our pension benefit problems are that we can’t afford what we’re paying," he said.
In addition to the salary report, Liu also weighed in on allegations that the city's police and firefighters may be logging extra hours in their final years to boost their final pension packages.
The study finds that police with 15 to 17 years of service logged an average of 251 overtime hours in 2010, versus 281 hours for those with 18 to 20 years — a jump of about 11 percent. For firefighters, that difference was 253 versus 239 hours for the year, a difference of six percent.
Liu's office concluded that the "small increase" could likely be explained by the general trend of uniformed workers working more overtime hours as their careers progressed.
"There is little evidence to demonstrate that NYC police officers or firefighters are 'spiking' their overtime prior to their retirements," the study reads.
The study also notes that New York City is the nation's eleventh largest employer, ahead of General Electric, AT&T, Citigroup and the State of New York.
When the city's quasi-independent authorities, like the MTA, are included, that ranking jumps to fourth.
In 2011, employee costs, including wages, pensions and health benefits, cost the city $36.9 billion — or about 55 percent of the total budget for the year.
