Feb. 13—The raises — on the public-sector side in Erie and Niagara counties — have been coming fast and furious of late.

Many of you reading this, who earn your living outside of government institutions, sadly cannot say the same for yourselves or your households.

It should be an indictment of the sad state of the Western New York economy.

Instead, it mostly elicits a collective shrug from the populace that picks up the tab for all the public cost.

I get it. You’re busy, sometimes working two or three jobs so you can endure all those painful trips to the grocery store while you struggle to maintain a car, a home and some semblance of a future for your children and grandchildren.

Still, it helps to be informed.

So, in case you missed it, here’s a quick recap of the salary shuffle that’s been going on around here and in Albany:

—Niagara County lawmakers late last year authorized $5,000 pay hikes for themselves, bumping the pay for part-time work to $24,075.

—County lawmakers also boosted the salaries this year for several department heads, county attorney Claude Joerg, and six assistant county attorneys, with the largest increase of $30,790 for assistant county attorney and former North Tonawanda city judge Katherine Alexander, who went from earning $94,210 in 2023 to $125,000 in 2024.

—Former Niagara County Republican Party Chairman Henry Wojtaszek received two raises — one for $10,000 in May and another for $15,000 last month — in his role as president and CEO of Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. The total pay hike of $25,000 in less than a year brings his current salary to $287,000, more than that of Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

In January, WROTB’s board granted pay hikes to four other top executives, including Chief Financial Officer Jacquelyne Leach (a $12,480 raise that increased her annual salary to $234,500), Chief Operating Officer Scott Kiedrowski (a $7,500 raise that increased his annual salary to $172,668), Vice President Of Administration William White (a $7,500 raise that increased his salary to $167,500) and Vice President Of Operations Sean Schiano (a $4,800 raise that increased his annual salary to $136,000).

—New York state lawmakers — Republicans and Democrats alike — saw their pay increased by $32,000 this year, upping their annual salaries to $142,000, making them the highest-paid group of state lawmakers in all of America.

—Over in Buffalo, the New York Coalition for Open Government, a non-profit group that advocates for transparency in local and state government, recently filed a lawsuit over what it describes as the “improper” enactment of salary raises for Mayor Byron Brown, members of the city’s common council and members of its board of education.

As reported by the Buffalo News, common council members voted last June to give 12.63% salary increases to themselves, the mayor, and the city comptroller. If approved, the city’s mayor would earn $178,519, up from $158,500, council members’ pay would jump to $84,472, up from $75,000 and the comptroller would be paid $134,593, up from $119,500.

For a bit of perspective, per capita income, or the amount earned per person in a given geographic region, was $29,391 in Niagara Falls and $31,877 in Lockport in 2022, according to the most recent estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Many of you reading this right now received a Social Security cost-of-living adjustment of 3.2% in 2024, good for about $50 extra per month but still less than half the 8.7% bump you received last year.

According to the Social Security Administration, typical monthly payments this year went from $,1,858 to $1,907.

It’s something but hardly enough to keep pace with rising costs for food and so much more.

To do better than break even — in some cases way, way better — it’s clear from the numbers that the best place to be is in a public post or a public office of some kind.

Mark Scheer welcomes comments via email at mark.scheer@niagara-gazette.com and by telephone at 716-282-2311, ext. 2254. Follow him on Twitter @ByMarkScheer.