4 ms·

- State employees make about 35% more than private-sector employees I'd like to know how they came up with those numbers, care to reference?

patio11 17y ago
http://www.sacbee.com/737/v-print/story/1917289.html http://www.sacbee.com/737/v-print/story/1917289.html The Sancramento Bee asked the government for salary data and then did some number crunching. The average public sector employee, excluding the university system, made $68k (median: $66k). The Bureau of Labor Statistics and other federal bodies maintain average wage stats for all states which should be comparable to those numbers. In California, the statewide average wage is $48k, the median about $36k. If you want to spend some time doing your own stats analysis of how much pay is for "comparable" jobs across the two sectors, a) it will be tough -- "comparable worth" is a very subjective notion b) you'll have one of the best linkbait ideas of the century and c) expect death threats.
callmeed 17y ago
"But the latest U.S. Census survey, from 2007, shows the average annual salary of California state government employees was $53,958, compared with $40,991 for the average private-sector worker." source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/153159-california-s-pension-problem-shockingly-irresponsible http://seekingalpha.com/article/153159-california-s-pension-... which is actually more like 31.6% higher ... sorry, bad head-math
- jhancock 17y ago
  Private sector jobs include all the minimum wage stuff which have no benefits. Even Steve Jobs only makes $1 a year, those types of pay packages skew the results as well. It would be more interesting to see averages segmented by job categories.
  - yummyfajitas 17y ago
    Many public sector jobs have a market rate barely above minimum wage [1], but actually cost far more thanks to public sector unions. I don't know about California, but I know that NYC MTA garbage collectors (job: taking garbage out of the subway) make about $50-60k and gets to retire after 20 years of work. [1] Very few people, even highly unskilled workers, earn minimum wage. Market rate tends to be higher. [edit: to clarify, by "taking garbage out of the subway", I mean taking the trash bags out of the garbage cans and bringing them to the dumpster, sweeping, picking up refuse, etc. In the private sector, this does not cost $50-60k. I'm not talking about track work.]
    - ct4ul4u 17y ago
      One point, garbage collection is a risky job and there is a substantial risk premium built into the salary.
      - patio11 17y ago
        Given the observed difference between the salary of a (unionized) school janitor and a (non-unionized) cleaning crew worker for a hotel, whose job duties are essentially identical, I can only assume that either a) unions kill more people than cancer or b) that there is another factor at play besides risk premiums.
DougBTX 17y ago
Using the quote like that makes it sound like a state employee doing the same job as a private employee will get paid 35% more, but that is far from the truth. Different people doing different jobs get paid differently, that's about all those statistics say.
- callmeed 17y ago
  ".. but that is far from the truth." Are you sure it's far from the truth? It's probably hard to compare, but look at clerical job openings (something that requires no college degree) at a university or public agency office with those in the private sector. Maybe comparable jobs aren't always 35% higher, but I think you'll find they are consistently higher

patio11 17y ago

http://www.sacbee.com/737/v-print/story/1917289.html http://www.sacbee.com/737/v-print/story/1917289.html The Sancramento Bee asked the government for salary data and then did some number crunching. The average public sector employee, excluding the university system, made $68k (median: $66k). The Bureau of Labor Statistics and other federal bodies maintain average wage stats for all states which should be comparable to those numbers. In California, the statewide average wage is $48k, the median about $36k. If you want to spend some time doing your own stats analysis of how much pay is for "comparable" jobs across the two sectors, a) it will be tough -- "comparable worth" is a very subjective notion b) you'll have one of the best linkbait ideas of the century and c) expect death threats.

callmeed 17y ago

"But the latest U.S. Census survey, from 2007, shows the average annual salary of California state government employees was $53,958, compared with $40,991 for the average private-sector worker." source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/153159-california-s-pension-problem-shockingly-irresponsible http://seekingalpha.com/article/153159-california-s-pension-... which is actually more like 31.6% higher ... sorry, bad head-math

jhancock 17y ago
Private sector jobs include all the minimum wage stuff which have no benefits. Even Steve Jobs only makes $1 a year, those types of pay packages skew the results as well. It would be more interesting to see averages segmented by job categories.
- yummyfajitas 17y ago
  Many public sector jobs have a market rate barely above minimum wage [1], but actually cost far more thanks to public sector unions. I don't know about California, but I know that NYC MTA garbage collectors (job: taking garbage out of the subway) make about $50-60k and gets to retire after 20 years of work. [1] Very few people, even highly unskilled workers, earn minimum wage. Market rate tends to be higher. [edit: to clarify, by "taking garbage out of the subway", I mean taking the trash bags out of the garbage cans and bringing them to the dumpster, sweeping, picking up refuse, etc. In the private sector, this does not cost $50-60k. I'm not talking about track work.]
  - ct4ul4u 17y ago
    One point, garbage collection is a risky job and there is a substantial risk premium built into the salary.
    - patio11 17y ago
      Given the observed difference between the salary of a (unionized) school janitor and a (non-unionized) cleaning crew worker for a hotel, whose job duties are essentially identical, I can only assume that either a) unions kill more people than cancer or b) that there is another factor at play besides risk premiums.

DougBTX 17y ago

Using the quote like that makes it sound like a state employee doing the same job as a private employee will get paid 35% more, but that is far from the truth. Different people doing different jobs get paid differently, that's about all those statistics say.

callmeed 17y ago
".. but that is far from the truth." Are you sure it's far from the truth? It's probably hard to compare, but look at clerical job openings (something that requires no college degree) at a university or public agency office with those in the private sector. Maybe comparable jobs aren't always 35% higher, but I think you'll find they are consistently higher