Public Sector Unions and the Rising Costs of Employee Compensation
January 01, 2010 Filed in:
Unions
Chris Edwards, Cato Journal Public sector compensation is becoming
a high-profile policy issue. While private sector wages and
benefits have stagnated during the recession, many governments
continue to increase compensation for public sector workers. At the
same time, there are growing concerns about huge underfunding in
public sector retirement plans across the nation. This article
examines the compensation of state and local workers, who account
for 20 million of the 23 million civilian government workers in the
United States. State and local workers include teachers, college
instructors, police officers, health care administrators, and many
other occupational groups…