The Public Policy Institute has updated information on workers’ compensation and other selected job costs included in its compendium of statistics, Just the Facts.

The updated data include workers' compensation information from the National Council on Compensation Insurance. In 2003-2003 (the latest year available), the average cost of a workers' comp case in New York was $19,737, the highest in the nation and 85 percent above the nationwide median.

Just the Facts also features data from the Beacon Hill Institute’s 2006 State Competitiveness Index. That index measures nine factors including government fiscal policy, security, infrastructure, labor force, technology, and environmental policy.

New York’s index score was 4.44, lower than 34 states.

The new data also show that:

• New York’s $7.15 per hour minimum wage is the 10th highest in the country – tied with Alaska and New Jersey.
  
  
• More than 24 percent of New York workers are represented by a union. Only Hawaii had a greater proportion of unionized workers at 24.7 percent.
  
  
• The average price of natural gas for New York’s industrial consumers in 2005 was 9.88 cents per thousand cubic feet -- 15 percent above the national average of 8.56. New York’s residential consumers and commercial customers paid 16 and 11 percent more than the national average, respectively.

The tables are available at www.ppinys.org/reports/JustTheFacts.html. Just the Facts features 52 data sets measuring key social and economic indicators for New York.

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