Worth A Read: "Coddled" Public Employees Make Less than the Private Sector
May 06, 2010
Amy Traub from the Drum Major Institute on new research by the Center for State and Local Government Excellence and the National Institute on Retirement Security on public employee compensation and the real "coddled class."
When workforce factors such as education and work experience are taken into account, state and local employees make less than their private sector counterparts. Looking at pay alone, those supposedly "coddled" state employees earn 11 percent less than comparable private sector workers. Employees of city and county governments earn 12 percent less than their private sector counterparts.
The new research offers no clarion call for public employee raises and benefit hikes to catch up with the private sector. Indeed, the study documents how public compensation has lagged private sector for twenty years. But it does throw the resurgent right-wing campaign to demonize public employees and their unions sharply into question. In this recession, public employees have been laid off, furloughed, and seen their wages frozen. At a time when public budgets are strained by falling tax revenue, these are among the difficult choices cities and states have made. But that's no reason to imagine that "greedy" city workers somehow caused the crisis or deserve to lose their jobs or to see their pay cut any more than private sector employees. Those looking for a "coddled class" should look to the Wall Street bonus pool, not the Parks Department.
Read more on the Huffington Post.
