Government Pay and Benefits Advantage Over Private Workers Widens
Something you expect to hear from National Review, not USA Today.
The pay gap between government workers and lower-compensated private employees is growing as public employees enjoy sizable benefit growth even in a distressed economy, federal figures show.
Public employees earned benefits worth an average of $13.38 an hour in December 2008, the latest available data, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) says. Private-sector workers got $7.98 an hour.
Overall, total compensation for state and local workers was $39.25 an hour — $11.90 more than in private business. In 2007, the gap in wages and benefits was $11.31.
The gap has been expanding because of the increasing value of public employee benefits. Last year, government benefits rose three times more than those in the private sector: up 69 cents an hour for civil servants, 23 cents for private workers.
What really gets me is that the private sector is so much more productive than the public sector. Not only do government workers do less than their private counterparts they often what they are doing is ineffectual or counterproductive.
This is for state and local employees. Federal employees are as much if not more overpaid.
The politicians have figured out that the slackers on the government payroll and the government dole are reliable voters for politicians that vote to waste more of our money.
