Labor & Employment Law

Public Employees Paid Less than Private-Sector Workers

By Tula Connell

With the barrage of orchestrated extremist attacks on public employees, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) reminds us today of a study it commissioned last year that disproves one of the biggest lies by anti-workers–that public employee make excessive pay.  In short, public employees are paid less than private-sector workers, even when factoring in employer-provided benefits. 

The paper by Rutgers University professor Jeffrey Keefe found:

Private-sector workers earned average annual wages of $55,132, $6,061 greater than the $49,072 earned by public-sector workers. When looking at total compensation including employer-provided benefits, this gap narrowed but the private-sector workers still earned $2,001 more per year than public sector workers ($71,109 in total compensation, versus $69,108). This gap was especially large among more educated workers. College-educated workers on averages earned $22,966 less in total compensation.

Read the full report here.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on January 07, 2011 (boomark / email).