Debunking the Myth of the Over-compensated Public Employee

[Bill USA]

http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/debunking_the_myth_of_the_overcompensated_public_employee">Debunking the Myth of the Over-compensated Public Employee

The research in this paper investigates whether state and local public employees are overpaid at the expense of taxpayers.

This research is timely. Thirty-seven states are struggling with substantial budget deficits. Several governors have identified excessive public employee compensation as a major cause of their states’ fiscal duress. The remedies they propose include public employee pay freezes, benefits reductions, privatization, major revisions to the rules of collective bargaining, and constitutional amendments to limit pay increases, each as a necessary antidote to the public employee overpayment malady.

The data analysis in this paper, however, indicate that public employees, both state and local government, are not overpaid. Comparisons controlling for education, experience, hours of work, organizational size, gender, race, ethnicity and disability, reveal no significant overpayment but a slight undercompensation of public employees when compared to private employee compensation costs on a per hour basis. On average, full-time state and local employees are undercompensated by 3.7%, in comparison to otherwise similar private-sector workers. The public employee compensation penalty is smaller for local government employees (1.8%) than state government workers (7.6%).

[vim876]

1. Seriously.

Public employees work for less because they get some job security and good benefits. Take those away, and exactly how are we going to find anyone with sufficient education levels willing to work in the public sector?

[Jackpine Radical]

2. That's easy. Hire people without the qualifications.

We don't need no stinkin' MDs, PhDs, JDs, MSWs, RNs, etc. Just pass laws exempting state employees from licensing requirements.

[truedelphi]

3. In a sense, that is already in the works.

Remember how when the Bush scandal involving his firing the Justice Department attorneys hit the inquiry committees of the House and Senate?

Several of the Bush attorneys were "educated" at RW Christian academies and supposed law universities. If you ever want confirmation of how when the RW Christians take over, the IQ level of most in office is in the basement, just view the testimony of those attorneys.

One young woman attorney did not even realize that the fact that she was offered immunity meant she certainly did not need to keep taking the Fifth. (Though I was relieved on some level to know she had heard about the Fifth Amendment.)