Convenient Scapegoats: Teachers, Firefighters, All Public Workers. Are They Overpaid?

[Better Believe It]

Convenient Scapegoats: Teachers, Firefighters, Parks Workers—All Public Workers
By Bruce T. Boccardy
October 27, 2010

For the last 40 years anti-union business organizations and media bloviators have undermined or virtually decimated private sector unions. They are now determined to destroy unions in the public sector.

Breathtaking misinformation is peddled to the public. Public sector unions are portrayed as responsible for the economic immiseration of all working people. Never mentioned is a tax structure that unfairly burdens middle and low-income taxpayers. The distinction between public sector union employees and management is conspicuously omitted.

Public sector union members are not living lavish lifestyles. Like all working people, they are struggling to pay unfair tax burdens for high-quality public services: police and fire protection, schools, childcare, libraries, public works, parks and recreational facilities, roads, bridges, veterans homes, hospitals, community health centers, and city and town halls.

Holding unions responsible for the economic burdens on middle- and low-income people is an attempt to distract us from the structural causes of economic injustice. Historically, unions have produced a prosperous middle class—that is now vanishing.

Please read the full article at:

http://www.labornotes.org/2010/10/convenient-scapegoats-teachers-firefighters-parks-workers-all-public-workers


--------------------------------------------


Video: Are Public Sector Workers Overpaid?
by Jane Slaughter
October 27, 2010

Public employees are the “welfare queens” of the 2010s. Just as 30 years ago everyone had an anecdote to tell about poor women getting rich on public assistance (our tax dollars), today the attack is on public workers—some of whom have the gall to still accrue pensions. Or, if they’re not on furlough, a decent wage.

As Bruce Boccardy, a Service Employees local president in Massachusetts, argues on this site, public sector unions are vilified everywhere as the cause of budget shortfalls and “the economic immiseration of all working people.” You expect this from corporate-funded think tanks that want business taxes cut even further, but it’s depressing when you hear it from other working people.

There’s a bad case of crabs in the bucket going around, each pulling another down. If I don’t have a decent job, they say, why should anyone else?

The video "Are Public Sector Workers Overpaid?" from the Real News Network shows Jeffrey Thompson of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst citing the facts: they earn less than their private sector counterparts when you account for experience and education.

See the video at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mqIv3zN0Js&feature=player_embedded

Read the full article at:

http://www.labornotes.org/blogs/2010/10/are-public-sector-workers-overpaid

[Zoeisright]

1. No kidding. Resenting middle class workers for making a decent living

is despicable. And so is anybody who would unrec this.

[pitohui]

2. the problem is that they're overpaid relative to everyone else

of course people are going to be angry and bitter when real wages have not gone up and have indeed completely collapsed for everyone else

teachers do not stand up and cheer for blue collar workers, indeed, they despise us as uneducated yokels

how long should we support those who don't support us?

[Hannah Bell]

3. garbage.

[blondeatlast]

6. Oops--I meant that for the poster above, so sorry! nt

[Wickerman]

5. incorrect

find a reputable study that supports your first claim. I have two that disprove it but I'll wait for you to back up your claim.

And the broad-brush attack against teachers... Jeebus, who even needs an opposition party.

[The Wielding Truth]

8. What? Not the teachers I know. They understand and support other middle class workers.

[Better Believe It]

15. You seem to be falling hook, line and sinker for the right-wing divisive bull shit spread

by our common enemy. How do you think attacking public workers will in anyway help blue collar workers?

Any and all artificial divisions among working people are harmful to all. The ruling rich encourage such conflicts and divisions. And in both the short run and long run they are the only ones who profit from such divisions.

Blue collar workers will certainly find it more difficult, if not impossible, to win support for our causes if we refuse to demonstrate solidarity with public workers in opposition to our common enemy.

So "how long should we support those who don't support us?"

Always, when other working people are under attack by our common foe.

Besides encouraging conflicts between public and private workers, the rulers have other cards up their sleeve to try and divide us and get us fighting one another.

Here's just a few things we see them encourage everyday.

Racism, sexism, gay baiting, poor baiting, xenophobia against workers in other lands and of course propaganda blaming undocumented workers for the economic crisis!

I hope you reconsider your position and carefully study how such divisions are harmful to our mutual joint interests .... they act like a terminal cancer in our class and must be rooted out.

[Kalyke]

19. Instead of asking them to take a pay cut, why aren't we

non-union, not public employees asking for raise INCREASES to match what our service workers are receiving?

I say that the corporations can more afford it than our governments; however, our governments could more afford things, as well, if we were all earning more and paying more taxes on those earnings and on the things we can buy with those earnings.

[blondeatlast]

21. Contemptible RW bullshot; why are you buying it? nt

[aquart]

4. NO. They are not overpaid. Bankers, however, are.

[One_Life_To_Give]

7. Yes and No

The Driver in the middle of a gang plow operation on the interstate isn't over paid. However the Wing Plow operator for the Non-Existent Wing Plow could be argued as overpaid.

Likewise I am sure I can fin d plenty of waste in my old school systems budgets. But that doesn't mean that the teachers don't earn their pay.

[Recursion]

11. The one person who abuses the system makes more headlines...

...than the 9999 who don't. And that's a lot of the problem.

[blondeatlast]

9. "Historically, unions have produced a prosperous middle class." Say it loud,

say it proud--then say it again and again until they get it.

k/r

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. They overpaid me $79 a month when I was a GI.

And, it went up to the princely sum of $165 a month 4 years later. And, I did as little as possible when employed by the USMC.

[Recursion]

12. On the other hand I got BAH and per diem for no reason for 2 months

when I was in Camp Pendleton. Not that I'm complaining, but I could see why everybody else would.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

16. Nobody ever complained about anything when I was in the "Crotch" aka the "Suck".

We were too busy singing the Marine's Hymn and shouting Semper Fi at each other...until we sobered up.

It never fails to amuse me when the right bitches about overpaid public workers but leave out the sacred military cash cow.

[musiclawyer]

13. I'm a public sector employee

and if was workintg private sector I would command and least twice as much. Same for everyone my office--from the lowest clerical to the top dog. And our retirement is nothing to write home about unless you make a 30 year career out of it.

The abuse comes from outlier agencies who pay upper managment way above mean. They are the exceptions and not the rule, and frankly, there, it's on the citizens asleep at the switch because no public sector employment contract gets approved in most states without a public meeting.

And I disagree that peace officers/correctional officers should get near full salary lifetime benefits after 20 years on the force. Yes, their job is dangerous, so pay them the big bucks when they are working. (In fact, I think cops should make more than anyone except the chief executive). But when the are retired, they should get the same amount as non-peace officers (2% at 55 in most places) This would save the taxpayers alot in the long run.

[gmoney]

14. Thomas Frank said the opposite

In his book "The Wrecking Crew" from 3 or 4 years ago, he made the argument that Republicans suppress government wages so that people make somewhat (to a whole lot) less than comparable jobs in the private sector. The motive being to scare off the "best and brightest" from gummint work, leaving those jobs for the C and D students. That way, government would be inefficient, ineffective, corruptible, and unable (or unwilling) to regulate or enforce regulation, as part of their efforts to wreck and dismantle as much of the government as possible in the name of free trade and unbridled capitalism.

Something tells me a lawyer working FOR the EPA trying to enforce regulations makes a whole lot LESS than the BP attorneys trying to defend BPs reckless actions. Same for financial oversight agencies, energy, transportation, military, health, and all other government positions.

I'm sure it's just a matter of skewed averages in that there probably aren't too many government jobs that pay as little as WalMart or McDonald's slave wages. And yes, government workers have unions that probably ensure even the janitors and cafeteria staff and file clerks make a living wage -- until someone decides that to reduce "headcount" they have to lay off 20% of their staff, only to "subcontract" that work out to a private company at 150% of the cost of maintaining those employees as government workers.

We saw it in the military in the Iraq war and occupation... they'd have an army PFC driving the truck who makes $35K a year, and sitting on the seat next to him was a Blackwater mercenary "providing security" and costing the government $35K a MONTH (or even a WEEK).

They also ignore the notion that paying government employees a reasonable wage may help guard against temptation to accept bribes or favors for NOT doing their job. There was the argument that it would be cheaper to pay all the Congressmen $10 Million a year or so, so that it wouldn't be cost-efficient for businesses to try to buy them off.

[Davis_X_Machina]

17. Remember the Gospel of St. Ronald, that....

...everything private is better than anything public. So long as one of us, somewhere is covered by a collective bargaining agreement, how can any of us, anywhere, really be free?

[treestar]

18. They get good benefits and are often thought of as practically

unable to lose those jobs. Whenever I've known someone who had one, they stay in it.

The jobs do not go unfilled.

[avaistheone1]

20. Yes and No

At a time when workers' pay and benefits have
stagnated, federal employees' average compensation
has grown to more than double what private sector
workers earn, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

Federal workers have been awarded bigger average
pay and benefit increases than private employees for
nine years in a row. The compensation gap between
federal and private workers has doubled in the past
decade.

Federal civil servants earned average pay and
benefits of $123,049 in 2009 while private workers
made $61,051 in total compensation, according to
the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The data are the
latest available.

The federal compensation advantage has grown
from $30,415 in 2000 to $61,998 last year.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/income/2010-08-10-1Afedpay10_ST_N.htm


It depends public employees pay is not monolithic. It varies - look at the various states. For example California public employee are very well paid, so much that...

California Pension Promises May Top Taxes by Fivefold, Milken Study Finds
By Michael B. Marois - Oct 19, 2010 10:22 AM PT

California, which has the largest U.S. public-pension fund, faces liabilities that may exceed its annual state-tax revenue fivefold within two years unless lawmakers rein in benefits, according to a study.

To keep their promises to retirees, the California Public Employees Retirement System, the biggest plan, the California State Teachers Retirement System, the second-largest, and the University of California Retirement System may have combined liabilities of more than 5.5 times the state’s annual tax revenue by fiscal 2012, according to the study released today by the Milken Institute. Levies are forecast to reach about $89 billion in the year that began July 1.

Debts to government retirees including those in California, the biggest state by population, have grown into a national crisis as pension plans strive to meet obligations to more than 19 million active and retired firefighters, police officers, teachers and other state workers. Fewer than half the plans had assets to cover 80 percent of promised benefits in fiscal 2009, according to data compiled for last month’s Cities and Debt Briefing hosted by Bloomberg Link.

“California simply lacks the fiscal capacity to guarantee public-pension payments, particularly given the wave of state employees set to retire” in future years, said researchers Perry Wong and I-Ling Shen in the Milken report. “Structural shifts, coupled with the financial design and the accounting practices of state pension funds, all point to the fact that reform is imperative.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-19/california-pension-promises-may-top-taxes-by-fivefold-milken-study-finds.html


Most of us don't make the kind of money to afford paying five time more in taxes to pay for this, nor do we have a money trees in our backyards. So what is the solution?

[stray cat]

22. You and I pay for them with our tax dollars - a good reason to eliminate all Bush's tax cuts

so you and I can contribute effectively to their pensions and salaries. Now if the rest of us could get guaranteed pensions instead of just giving them - as we also do for politicians even if they fail to serve one term and end up impeached