Math error in ‘Run the numbers’ letter

Donnelly takes the line from your county budget story that “60% to 70% of the budget goes toward the nearly 6,000 employees” and treats that as if 65% of the $5.2 billion is paid out directly as employee compensation. Dividing that by 5,945 positions gives his $568,545 average.

But that’s not what the 60-70% figure means. It’s the share of the budget administered by departments that employ those staff, not the share paid out in salary and benefits. Those department budgets include enormous non-personnel spending that still “goes toward” the program: Medi-Cal and CalFresh payments passed through to residents (covering roughly 59,000 and 33,000 county residents respectively), contracts with outside providers, capital projects, debt service, grants, etc. None of that is employee pay.

Actual average total compensation for county employees is nowhere near $568K — historically it’s been in the $100K-180K range (wages plus benefits), which is also roughly consistent with public salary data for the county.

Jacob Opoliner

San Mateo