A recent study by several media outlets in the Upstate, including Laurens County, has recently filed Freedom of Information Act requests for the salaries of various public offices and institutions and has made them available in their publications.

While this is perfectly legal and within the means of any news organization to do, the two questions that come out of an action like this is one- Is it wise? And two-What end does it serve?

I have in recent days had constructive arguments with various people about this issue, and I will say up front that I do not think it’s a good idea to publish the salaries of the people who work in public institutions. One counter-argument that has been made to me is that everyone knows what the President makes so why not everyone else?

My response to that question has been and will always be that you could pay the President of the United States one dollar a year and the best of the best would still run for that office simply out of the prestige of it. However, if you start to print what a city manager or school superintendent make, will that make the best of the best want to come to your community?

Also, there are going to be many people who get mad about how much the President/CEO of a hospital makes. But, ask yourself, could I do that job? Could I oversee the operations of a hospital with hundreds of employees and a $50+ million budget? Do you have the education and experience to run an operation like that? I know I don’t.

Could you run a school system with ten schools and hundreds of administrators, teachers, staff members, students, coaches, athletics, and everything else that goes with the job. Could you make the decisions they make and make sure they’re the right decisions? I don’t think I could.

The people who make big bucks are paid big bucks because they are responsible for many employees, day to day operations, multi-million dollar budgets and ensuring the continuity of their institution.

So, it makes no sense to me to come down on public servants for doing a job that not that many people can do and then ridiculing them for how much money they make.

My second point is that it’s easy to throw out some salary numbers and not compare them to anything. Because, when people don’t have anything to judge against, they judge against themselves. And, that leads to anger when an electrician or a teacher sees how much money they make compared to the salary of a City Manager, which is a false comparison.

To see how you stack up in the salary line, you should compare your salary to people who do what you do, not what someone in a completely different field does. That’s the mistake that is being made.

Instead of just throwing out a blanket statement of salaries, there needs to be some research done and compare those salaries to others in a similar job with similar requirements and budgets. That’s the fair and only responsible way to make comparisons.

Maybe organizations can set up some sort of shadow program where members of the community can tag along with executives for a day to see the decisions and work that has to be done each day.

But, don’t count on that happening. The same people who complain about these salaries won’t even come to a School Board meeting or County Council meeting.