The Roundup: What’s Hot On StateImpact

Before you dash away from your desk for the weekend, here’s a bit of Friday afternoon refreshment: the top 5 posts from StateImpact this week. 

1. State Workers: Overpaid, Underpaid, Or Just Right? Public and private workers in New Hampshire are among the most evenly compensated, finds a new report from the right-leaning Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW). Still, the report shows, the New Hampshire’s public sector pays on average, $4.51 more, per hour, than the private sector. The report states that “State governments pay on average 6.2 percent more per hour in wages and benefits, including pension benefits, than the private sector for the 22 major occupational categories that exist in both sectors.”
2. The States With The Best And Worst Wage Laws For Home Health Workers President Obama is pushing the U.S. Department of Labor to move forward on a rule change that would raise wages and require overtime pay for home health workers.  According to a White House media release, 1.79 million Americans fall into this labor category.
3. A History Of The Pledge Next month, Granite Staters will vote on a state constitutional amendment that would ban any new income tax. It’s well known that New Hampshire is a rare hold-out in having no broad-based income or sales tax (Alaska, rich in oil reserves, is the only other state with neither), but how did we get that way?
4. DC Plan More Expensive Than Current DB Plan, House Report Says Republicans have been trying to pass legislation transitioning new employees to a defined contribution retirement plan, in order to reduce the cost of the state’s retirement system.
5. Starting A Business: The New Retirement? We all know that Americans are living and working longer. According to AARP, only 13 percent of Americans expect not to return to work after they hit “traditional retirement age.” But just as Americans are able and wanting to work longer — the recession has left many aging adults out of work.