California Has 40,845 Government Workers Who Make Over $150,000 in Compensation: A Look at the Upper Class

Barack Obama calls them heroes. Barack Obama calls them the "backbone" of the middle class. But, The Orange County Register reports:

There was some gasping last week after the Sunshine Review’s first state government salary report found that California had the most workers making more than $150,000.

The Sunshine Review looked at just a handful of the larger government agencies in the biggest states — including the County of Orange — and found that there were 1,332 workers in the $150K club in the Golden State.

“These way out of line and unsustainable salaries of public employees are one of the main reasons why California is such an expensive place to live,” Peter H. Christiansen commented on our story.

“California per capita income tops $43,000,” reader Kevin Keyes wrote, quoting our colleague Mary Ann Milbourn. “Government seems to be the 1%.”
Sorry kids. That’s not the half of it.

We at The Watchdog took a spin through our own local government data (whose numbers were furnished by cities and counties themselves, to the state controller’s office, who furnished them to us).

Sit down. California’s 500+ cities and counties reported 40,845 workers earning $150,000 or more in total compensation, according to the controller’s figures. (That’s out of more than 680,000 positions statewide).

Keep in mind those are just two branches of local government.

Your tax increase for Jerry Brown: is their compensation!