Full Citation
Title: State and Local Public Employees: Are They Overcompensated?
Citation Type: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2012
ISBN:
ISSN:
DOI:
NSFID:
PMCID:
PMID:
Abstract: This article analyzes whether state and local public employees are overpaid at the expense of taxpayers. In 2011, forty-one states struggled with a cumulative total of $120 billion in budget deficits.1 Many states identified excessive public employee compensation as a major cause of their fiscal duress and proposed: pay freezes; benefits reductions; privatization; major collective bargaining revisions; the elimination of collective bargaining; and constitutional amendments to limit pay increases. 2 Each change was asserted to be a necessary antidote to the public employee overpayment malady. Wisconsin eliminated meaningful collective bargaining for most public employees, while the legislation passed and later repealed in Ohio would have seriously eroded the scope of bargaining and eliminated dispute resolution procedures and rights.3 The data analysis, however, indicate that state and local public employees are not overpaid. Comparisons controlling for education, experience, hours of work, gender, race, ethnicity, and disability reveal no significant overpayment. Instead, the data reveal that on a perhour basis, public employees are slightly undercompensated when compared to similar private-sector employees. As illustrated below, full-time state and local employees are, on average, undercompensated by 5.6%. The public employee compensation penalty is smaller for local government employees (4.1%) than state government workers (8.3%). Section I of this article analyzes demographic data to measure the difference in education and benefits between public- and privatesector employees and concludes with a total compensation analysis. Section II addresses and dispels common criticisms of my research. Finally, section III concludes that public employees are not overcompensated and . . .
User Submitted?: No
Authors: Keefe, Jeffrey H.
Periodical (Full): ABA Journal of Labor & Employment Law
Issue: 2
Volume: 27
Pages: 239-255
Data Collections: IPUMS CPS
Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure
Countries: