Study Shows State Workers Earn Less, Not More

By aaroncynic in News on Apr 28, 2010 9:40PM

All of the recent hand wringing over state worker salaries could be misinformed. A new report released by the National Institute on Retirement Security finds that wages of state and local employees are lower than workers in the private sector with comparable education and work experience. The pay gap between public and private sector workers has widened over the past 15 years with public employees typically earning 11% to 12% less.

Here in Illinois, the wage differential is 12.5% for state workers and 13.3% for local employees. This is a drastic difference from the Illinois Policy Institute's claim that state workers make 15.7% more than their private sector counterparts. The difference between the two lies in how the data was collected and interpreted. The private sector typically contains more low wage jobs, which pulls the overall average down and is not an exact comparison when education and training are factored in.

The picture looks a little bit brighter when benefits are factored in. The NIRS study found that benefits make up slightly more of a share of compensation. State workers typically earn 6.8% less than private employees in total compensation.