Salaries

Baltimore County government will begin posting the salaries of every county employee online beginning Friday, July 1. The salaries will be listed on the county's website at http://www.baltimorecountymd.gov , on the Human Resources page of the site. In a statement about the decision to post the salaries, County Executive Kevin Kamenetz said, "I am very pleased that our budget officials and staff members in the Office of Information Technology were able to complete this latest task as part of our ongoing effort to make government innovative, efficient and responsible.

Anne Arundel County Executive Laura Neuman wants to give county parks director Rick Anthony a 37.3 percent pay raise. Andrea Fulton, the county's personnel director, told the County Council on Tuesday that boosting Anthony's salary from $88,121 to $121,000 would bring his pay in line with that of other department directors in the county. Other department directors make between $110,000 and $160,000. "It's a one-time adjustment to adjust a salary to a department head that is way below what other department heads are making," Fulton said.

Anthony Conti was 25, fresh from law school, when Piper Marbury Rudnick and Wolfe offered him his first job two years ago. But before he started work, the firm sent him two letters - bumping his starting salary $10,000, to $95,000. "I was ecstatic," Conti recalled. Faced with competition from dot-coms and other technology firms, law firms across the nation were forced into bidding wars for new talent. To compete for top graduates, for example, Baltimore law firms raised the average salary for new attorneys almost 20 percent.

The op-ed pieces that are occasionally presented by local professors are eye opening, not for their insight but for their lack thereof. If professor Don Norris ("Flacco's contract shows America's skewed priorities," June 121) had taken an Economics 101 course, he would have certainly studied the paradox of value. In the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith wrote, "The things which have the greatest value in use frequently have little or no value in exchange; on the contrary, those which have the greatest value in exchange frequently have little or no value in use. Nothing is more useful than water: but it will purchase scarce anything; scarce anything can be had in exchange for it. A diamond, on the contrary, has scarce any use-value; but a very great quantity of other goods may frequently be had in exchange for it. " Smith's solution to this apparent paradox was that the value in exchange of a thing is determined by its supply relative to its demand.

I am writing in regards to the article you posted on salaries of state workers ("Coaches, doctors get top state pay" May 24). The problem with this is I am a state employee who puts my life on the line each and every day that I go to work, and I do not feel as though my full name and date of hire should be posted. I work short staffed everyday and in some very rough conditions that no one else would want to do. I am a correctional officer of 16 years in Jessup, and my job is to protect the public, the detainees, the employees and offenders housed behind the fences and walls that the average person has no knowledge of. My salary of $50,000 is hardly enough when you look at the type of work I do and the risk I take to do it. I am at risk of contracting AIDS, TB, head lice, MERSA, other childhood diseases as well, meningitis, hepatitis, tuberculosis, and melanoma and cancer.

Baltimore County has just implemented a very basic transparency measure that Howard County ought to copy. It has put the salary of each of its employees, from the county executive to part-time secretaries, online. Find the human resources page of the Baltimore County government website and you can download a PDF document that lists all 7,700, by name, in alphabetical order and includes their job titles. This is all information that the local government has stored digitally already, so compiling it for public use requires little in the way of additional time, expense or resources.

While the latest update of the Baltimore Sun public salary database continues a long-running trend of university head coaches out-earning their academic counterparts, those who oversee academic medical programs aren't exactly suffering. Coaches Randy Edsall, Ralph Friedgen, Brenda Frese and Mark Turgeon filled out the top pay slots, making a total of just over $5.7 million in 2011 (the second of the two years covered by the update), but University of Maryland medical school administrators were not far behind: The remainder of the top ten earners comprised university staff, with an average compensation of $759,029 for the year in question*.

If Gov. Martin O'Malley wants to make some real money when his second term ends, he might want to apply for work at the University System of Maryland. The great majority of the 1,346 workers who match or beat the governor's $150,000 annual salary, including the 15 highest earners, work for the university system, according to a Baltimore Sun analysis of state employee salaries for 2010. Most of the exceptions are doctors with the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, a few judges and a scattering of others.

Musicians of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra agreed Thursday to take another salary hit in an effort to help the organization weather the continued effects of the recession. Players accepted a freeze for the 2010-2011 season and a 16.6 percent reduction for the two seasons after that. "We're devastated," said Jane Marvine, an English horn player and spokeswoman for the Players' Committee. "In the last decade, two times we had great contracts that were unfulfilled. This sets us back a decade."

Interesting that The Sun posts all Baltimore County Public Schools salaries. I feel you have every right to dig into our monetary lives for all to view, yet as quid pro quo, why don't you feel the pain of posting all of your employees' salaries? I'm sure you'd gain serious media attention, especially due to the growing lack of support for newspapers. Thanks again for reminding me why I do not spend my hard-earned money to read your newspaper. Talk about a teachable moment, yes?

It's been a busy year so far for Audrey Dyer-Brown, collections supervisor at the city Department of Public Works. Her job duties have ballooned - and so has her paycheck. By early May, she'd already made 87 percent of her yearly salary, even though the year was just one-third over. Thanks to a whopping 538 hours of overtime in that span, she took in $22,280 above her regular pay, giving her gross income of $37,500 by May 8, according to figures provided by the city. Her regular salary for the entire year: $42,900.

The "average" federal employee salary is nearly $78,500, an amount that has risen by about $1,800 in the past two years despite a general freeze on salary rates, according to the Office of Personnel Management. As of September, OPM reported last week, the average salary for a full-time, permanent, non-seasonal position was $78,467. The comparable figure for December 2010 was $76,701. The latest available median salary is $74,714, up from $69,550 in 2010. Federal employees did not receive the traditional across-the-board January raises in 2011, 2012 or 2013.

In the Sunday Baltimore Sun, there was an article entitled "Some lawmakers to give back pay" (April 7). It claims that President Barack Obama is showing solidarity and shared sacrifice with the federal employees who are about to be furloughed. What a joke and an insult! President Obama will give back 5 percent of his salary or $16,667. Furloughed employees will be giving back 21 days of pay, about 13 percent of their salaries. If Mr. Obama really wants shared sacrifice, as he states, he would give back 21 days of pay or $32,308.

As soon as the Super Bowl ended and quarterback Joe Flacco signed a long term contract, the real business was going to begin as far as reshaping the Ravens. Several of the team's big name free agents were going to ask for more money, and there wasn't going to be a lot to give. The latest is Dannell Ellerbe, the best inside linebacker in free agency. There is no doubt that the Ravens want him back, but at what price? Ellerbe wants a $25 to $30 million contract worth about $6 million per season, and the Ravens want to pay about $5 million a year.

Ravens veteran wide receiver Anquan Boldin bullied defensive backs during the NFL playoffs, emerging as a Super Bowl XLVII hero. Now, he's in danger of losing his job. The Ravens are attempting to lower the $6 million salary of the three-time Pro Bowl selection, and it could lead to his release by the start of the free agent signing period Tuesday if talks continue to be unsuccessful, according to league sources with knowledge of the situation....

Now that quarterback Joe Flacco is poised to become the highest paid player in the NFL by virtue of a $120.6 million contract, the Ravens aren't expected to use the franchise tag on any of their other unrestricted free agents. Although Monday afternoon marks the league deadline to use the designation, general manager Ozzie Newsome has already stated that Flacco was the Ravens' lone candidate to be named a franchise player. The Flacco contract, which includes a record $62 million payout during the first three years, won't become official until the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player takes and passes a physical and signs his contract Monday.

Since 55 million retirees have received no cost of living increases for the last two years it only seems fair to freeze all government and elected officials' salaries until jobs in the private sector grow and tax revenues increase. Moreover, there should be no bonuses for government employees until the economy becomes healthy enough to increase tax revenues. These are ominous times and really tough decisions are needed. Printing and borrowing more money is not the answer. Bill Huppert

In the recession, high salaries and other compensation for corporate executives have become controversial. Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission ordered publicly owned companies to give shareholders the right to voice an opinion how much their executives are paid. Two Maryland companies, Bell Atlantic and Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., were among 10 major U.S. companies affected by the ruling.The Evening Sun would like to know if you think investors should have a say in the salaries for executives.

Proved he deserves it Sam Farmer Los Angeles Times Tom Brady. Drew Brees. Aaron Rodgers. Peyton Manning. Pick an elite quarterback. Joe Flacco deserves that kind of money. He proved it in the playoffs, throwing 11 touchdown passes and no interceptions. He proved it last year, when the Ravens would have made the Super Bowl but for Lee Evans dropping a TD pass that was in his hands. Flacco is the unquestioned leader of the franchise, and a guy who has won at least one playoff game in each of his five seasons.

The Orioles and their three remaining arbitration-eligible players have officially filed salary numbers for 2013. Closer Jim Johnson, who led the majors in saves with 51, asked for $7.1 million while the Orioles countered with $5.7 million. He is in his third year of arbitration and made $2.625 million last year. Starter Jason Hammel, who was 8-6 with a 3.43 ERA in 20 starts for the Orioles last year, asked for $8.25 million and the Orioles countered with $5.7 million. He is in his fourth year of arbitration and made $4.75 million last year.