State/Local Versus Private-Sector Workers

State/Local Versus Private Sector Workers 

Putting aside job security, the calculations show that state/local benefits nearly offset the private sector wage premium, but compensation in the public sector is 4 percent less than that in the private sector

Key findings:

• State and local workers have a wage penalty of 9.5 percent.
• Pension contributions and retiree health insurance help close the gap.
• Total compensation for public sector workers is about 4 percent less than that in the private sector.

Update:

Just wondering why these studies (like the one above) - the ones where academics actually look at the numbers and report on such - rarely are discussed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Every anecdotal story and "gut" feeling was paraded out in their reporting during Scott Walker's vilifying of public workers. The claims of excessive pay, overly generous benefits, etc. This was all reported as a given, a known fact.

It was, and is, nothing of the sort. Studies refuted it then, and they still refute it now.

Public workers are a bargain. Private workers doing the same work would cost you (at least) 4% more.