The Latest in The War Between Public & Private Sector Workers: "The compensation gap between federal and private workers has doubled in the past decade.

Nick Gillespie | August 10, 2010

Put down that coffee or soda before
reading the latest of the massive and growing gap between public
and private sector compensation:

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.

But wait, there's more:

What the data show:

•Benefits. Federal workers received average
benefits worth $41,791 in 2009. Most of this was the government's
contribution to pensions. Employees contributed an additional
$10,569.

•Pay. The average federal salary has grown 33%
faster than inflation since 2000. USA TODAY reported in March that
the federal government pays an average of 20% more than private
firms for comparable occupations. The analysis did not consider
differences in experience and education.

•Total compensation. Federal compensation has
grown 36.9% since 2000 after adjusting for inflation, compared with
8.8% for private workers.

The article notes that defenders of federal pay levels argue
that public employers tend to have more education than their
private sector counterparts. Which, as much as anything, probably
reflects credentialism run amok as a demonstrated need for
specialized skills.

Read the whole thing here.

When federal workers' average annual benefits comes close to as
much as many people make in straight salary, well, that ain't
right. And it's not only economically unsustainable, it's
politically poisonous as well. Folks ranging from Arnold
Schwarzenegger to Willie Brown have pointed out that massive public
employee labor costs are simply out of control. In a world in
which, rightly or wrongly (I think mostly rightly), private sector
workers are fending more and more form themselves, nobody is going
to go gentle into that good night as tax-supported workers get more
money, hugely better benefits, absolute job security, and better
retirement set-ups.

Lots of previous posts on the coming war between public and
private sector workers.