There Are Two Michigans and a Big Pay Gap: Private vs. Public Employees
According to this report from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "The average private sector employee in Michigan earned $41,128 in fiscal 2005, compared to $48,421 for the average state civil service worker. State government employees, in other words, earned about 18 percent more than private sector workers."
The report also compared private vs. public compensation (wages and benefits) for specific job classifications, including those shown above in the graph (click to enlarge).
Private sector receptionists make only 63% as much as their counterparts in the public sector, and private sector food service supervisors make only 83% of their public sector counterparts.
So there are "Two Michigans" and there is a "disturbing pay gap" when comparing compensation in the private sector to the public sector.
The report also compared private vs. public compensation (wages and benefits) for specific job classifications, including those shown above in the graph (click to enlarge).
Private sector receptionists make only 63% as much as their counterparts in the public sector, and private sector food service supervisors make only 83% of their public sector counterparts.
So there are "Two Michigans" and there is a "disturbing pay gap" when comparing compensation in the private sector to the public sector.
4 Comments:
I have some public receptionists in my graduate classes, but no private receptionists. I wonder if the educational levels tend to run higher in civil service jobs than the private sector. I know the public sector has a higher percentage of unionized employees than the private sector.
Could you please compare this to other states. I would not find this information "disturbing" if the gap in Kentucky is %35 or the gap in Florida is %19. Please give us something to compare this information to.
What's disturbing -- that public employees are overpaid or private employees are underpaid?
Spencer:
The first sentence of the report quoted in the post is:
"The average private sector employee in Michigan earned $41,128 in fiscal 2005, compared to $48,421 for the average state civil service worker."
The word "average" encompasses the 99% you're looking for.
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