Mon
Jan 17 2011
04:22 pm
MLK Jr. and the attack on public workers
By: michael kaplan

Scott Marshall's article.

As we celebrate the life and historic contributions of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, public workers are under fierce attack across the country. As the economic crisis worsens for working people there is a coordinated campaign by big business, the newly energized, tea party Republican right, and some Democrats to resolve the crisis on the backs of public workers.
EricLykins's picture

State and local employees

Submitted by EricLykins on Tue, 2011/01/18 - 8:06am.

State and local employees have lower total
compensation than their private sector counterparts.
On average, total compensation is 6.8 percent lower
for state employees and 7.4 percent lower for local
workers, compared with comparable private sector
employees.

"Out of Balance? Comparing Public and Private Sector Compensation Over 20 Years"

bizgrrl's picture

First, examining the data

Submitted by bizgrrl on Tue, 2011/01/18 - 8:40am.

First, examining the data across all years (shown in the right-hand columns of Table 1), we note that workers in the state and local sector are disproportionately female, married, black, and unionized compared to in the private sector. Critically, they are also older and much more educated.

I've known people (men and women), even recently, who have left the private sector for the public sector for job stability and benefits (health insurance, retirement, vacation time, sick leave time). I've always felt that these two criteria are important reasons that people move to the public sector for employment even if the overall compensation is lower.

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