Public workers highly paid? Not exactly

[Kadie]

Public workers highly paid? Not exactly

Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

Tuesday, October 19, 2010


(10-19) 04:00 PDT Sacramento - --

Public workers in California earn 7 percent less on average than private sector employees, but make about the same amount after benefits and other compensation are factored in, according to a study released Monday.

The study by economists at UC Berkeley and Rutgers University found that the similar wages and benefits exist despite the fact that 55 percent of public employees in the state have a college degree, compared with just 35 percent of California's private sector workers. Education levels are usually the most important factor in determining wages, but public employees do not get the same return for their education level as private sector employees, said co-author Sylvia Allegretto.

Allegretto, deputy chairwoman of UC Berkeley's Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics, co-authored the study with Jeffrey Keefe, an associate professor of labor and employment relations at Rutgers University.

Allegretto said the findings should put to rest some of the arguments over high public compensation, which has been a huge issue this election season and one that became particularly acute in California on the heels of a public corruption scandal in the Los Angeles County city of Bell.

"There's no significant difference between public and private sector workers in California. ... It's basically a wash," Allegretto said.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/19/MNUJ1FUAOH.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz12p5hpHGp

[old mark]

1. I was a civil service employee here in PA - Ed Rendell used to send all of us mesaages every month

via computer, telling us how much our work was valued and how great a job HE was doing taking care of our best interests...Unfortunately, there is another monthly PA web site to attract businesses to PA, telling them that "PA state workers do more for less money", and that the dreaded Social Workers and service agency workers are paid less than every other state but Alabama. People love to imagine other people have easy, highly paid jobs, but I have found very few who want to take out places...I worked in a state mental hospital, and after I was there 2 years, I was the only one of the dozen people who started with me still working for the state.


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