ALBANY - Public workers in New York contribute less than half the national average to their public pensions, but get the eighth highest benefit, a national study concludes.

Workers for state and local governments and school districts collected an average pension of $23,891 in 2005, or about 16 percent above the national average, according to the study released Thursday by The Public Policy Institute of New York State. That's the research arm of the Business Council of New York State.

New York's benefit is the eighth highest in the nation, below Connecticut (first), New Jersey (fourth) and California (sixth). New York's benefit was higher than Massachusetts (15th), Pennsylvania (16th) and Michigan (30th). The national average was $20,474.

The study also found New York's public workers pay an average of 4 percent of the cost of their pension, compared to the national average of 9 percent. New York's lower contribution ranks 45th among the states.

“If we are ever going to get taxes under control in New York, the cost of public employees has to be part of the equation and pension benefits are a significant piece of the cost,” said the institute's Robert Ward. He said several states have reacted to their costs

“I don't think a $23,000-a-year pension is anything to apologize for,” said Stephen Madarasz of Civil Service Employees Association, which represents 265,000 state and local workers and retirees.

“The truth is that in many other states, public employees have no collective bargaining right and they are treated as second-class citizens, so it's a bit of an unfair comparison,” Madarasz said.

It is the latest of several criticisms of the state's public payroll. The report notes that New York had more than 732,000 retired public workers collected pensions last year, or 10.6 percent of the nationwide total while accounting for 6.5 percent of the overall population.

Gov. George Pataki has spent much of this year vetoing hundreds of bills passed by the Legislature, many of which would sweeten state pensions beyond what he said the state and taxpayers could afford.

“This report provides additional evidence for why Governor Pataki was correct in vetoing dozens of pension sweetener bills passed by the Legislature this year,” said Pataki spokesman Michael Marr.