Seawytch
Information isnt Advocacy
Public sector unions are the major reason that so many states, counties and towns are on the verge of bankruptcy. The salaries/benefits of public employees have been so inflated over the past decades... primarily because there was plenty of taxpayer money and since city negotiators didn't have to worry about things like profit, it was easy to give in to union threats and demands.
No, the recession and the housing bubble are the reason states are on the verge of bankruptcy. Public sector employees take lower wages than private sector employees in exchange for pensions and benefits. Now that the states are encountering these financial difficulties, again through no fault of it's public sector employees, those employees promised benefits are being threatened by Republican legislators in order to give MORE tax breaks to wealthy corporations.
And yet public sector employees wages are higher than their private sector counterparts on average. Go figure.
Once again, the reality of the situation is different than the talking points.
Reason Foundation - Comparing Private Sector and Government Worker Salaries
Are Public Sector Workers Overcompensated?
Several analyses of average wages and benefits in the public and private sectors reveal that state and local government workers earn more than private sector workers. According to the most recent Employer Costs for Employee Compensation survey from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of December 2009, state and local government employees earned total compensation of $39.60 an hour, compared to $27.42 an hour for private industry workers-a difference of over 44 percent. This includes 35 percent higher wages and nearly 69 percent greater benefits.
Not when adjusted for education. The numbers you quoted takes the entire country and compares it...including minimum wage jobs. Not a fair comparison.
"But when we compare apples to apples, we find that Wisconsin public employees earn 4.8% less in total compensation than comparable private sector workers," Keefe wrote. "The comparisonscontrolling for education, experience, hours of work, organizational size, gender, race, ethnicity, citizenship, and disabilitydemonstrate that full-time state and local public employees earn lower wages and receive less in total compensation (including all benefits) than comparable private sector employees.
"Why does it appear otherwise? Both nationally and within Wisconsin, public sector workers are significantly more educated than their private sector counterparts."
"Why does it appear otherwise? Both nationally and within Wisconsin, public sector workers are significantly more educated than their private sector counterparts."
Fox Business Network's Eric Bolling says Wisconsin teachers get compensated nearly double those in private sector