The Bureau of Labor Statistics has issued another important finding from its annual National Compensation Survey. State and local government workers cost their employers – that’s us – far more in wages and benefits than private sector workers cost their employers:
compensation in December 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Wages and salaries averaged $19.64 per hour worked and accounted for 70.8 percent of these costs, while benefits averaged $8.11 and accounted for the remaining 29.2 percent. Total compensation costs for state and local government workers averaged $40.28 per hour worked in December 2010. Total employer compensation costs for civilian workers, which include private industry and state and local government workers, averaged $29.72 per hour worked in December 2010.
The difference is significant. Government workers get 45% more compensation than private workers for the same hour worked.
At this point someone normally pops up to say that public sector workers are much more highly educated etc etc, which is just a nice way of saying that private sector workers are stupid. The fact is, however, that the NCS demonstrates that in many cases professions that are directly equivalent in terms of qualifications necessary and job responsibilities are paid higher in the public sector than in the private sector. A forthcoming study from CEI will detail the discrepancies.
Government workers also get more in benefits as well as higher base salaries. They cost is about $7 in salaries and $6 more in benefits. Private sector workers do cost more in “supplemental pay” – bonuses and overtime – than government workers, but government workers cost more in paid leave, insurance, health benefits and retirement plans.
