Government Employment vs. Private Sector Employment

Lon · Post by **Lon** » Sun Feb 19, 2012 2:25 pm

There was a time in the U.S. when government employment paid slightly less than a comparable position in the private sector. This was acceptable because of the job security and benefits that were not always available in the private sector. Today, most government jobs pay more than their private sector counterpart and with all the fringe goodies on top. What's the situation in the UK and other countries?

Ahso! · Post by **Ahso!** » Sun Feb 19, 2012 2:38 pm

Lon;1385226 wrote: There was a time in the U.S. when government employment paid slightly less than a comparable position in the private sector. This was acceptable because of the job security and benefits that were not always available in the private sector. Today, most government jobs pay more than their private sector counterpart and with all the fringe goodies on top. What's the situation in the UK and other countries?I think it's only fair to mention why that is, Lon. The private sector has lowered salaries and wages and has ceased offering benefits while government employment has kept up with inflation and maintained benefits.

Lon · Post by **Lon** » Sun Feb 19, 2012 2:46 pm

Ahso!;1385229 wrote: I think it's only fair to mention why that is, Lon. The private sector has lowered salaries and wages and has ceased offering benefits while government employment has kept up with inflation and maintained benefits.

Is this good or bad in your opinion and why has the private sector lowered lowered salaries and ceased offering benefits?

Ahso! · Post by **Ahso!** » Sun Feb 19, 2012 3:00 pm

Lon;1385232 wrote: Is this good or bad in your opinion and why has the private sector lowered lowered salaries and ceased offering benefits?I don't judge good and bad, I only make personal decisions.

The why part: Because corporations have shifted their focus to the shareholder/investor and neglected the needs of the employee.

Lon · Post by **Lon** » Sun Feb 19, 2012 3:20 pm

Ahso!;1385229 wrote: I think it's only fair to mention why that is, Lon. The private sector has lowered salaries and wages and has ceased offering benefits while government employment has kept up with inflation and maintained benefits.

The government has been paying more salary and benefits way before the private sector reduced their salaries and benefits.

AnneBoleyn · Post by **AnneBoleyn** » Sun Feb 19, 2012 3:24 pm

I remember this boo-hoo debate from years ago about how the government had to attract "talent" yet couldn't because the salaries were too low for big gov't guys to attract & pay off their friends for working with them. Like Brownie, who was doing such an excellent job for W. Bush. If they didn't pay Brownie well, he would have stuck with Arabian horse-training instead of sharing his skills with Katrina victims. Then where would we be?

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Sun Feb 19, 2012 3:27 pm

Ahso!;1385235 wrote: I don't judge good and bad, I only make personal decisions.

The why part: Because corporations have shifted their focus to the shareholder/investor and neglected the needs of the employee.

Which they couldn't do if the economy was buoyant and the employment market near capacity.

Over here, Civil Service pensions have been the only ones to retain the index link but the government are now moving to cut even that.

Given the changing demographics with the improvements on medical care there are only three solutions to the pensions imbalance - increase the percentage income taken into the pension pot, cut the value of pension payments to pensioners or change the ration of workers to pensioners. By cutting the index link the pension schemes are achieving the second, by raising the retirement age (currently, women's state retirement age is rising from sixty to sixty five in stages before everyone's state retirement age is increased from sixty five to seventy) the government is achieving the third.

As for Civil Service pay, here it became embarrassing at the bottom end of the market with nurses and firemen, in particular, being paid a pittance whilst at the top end the Senior Civil Servants were given what the politicians gave themselves to keep them sweet.

Ahso! · Post by **Ahso!** » Sun Feb 19, 2012 4:01 pm

Lon;1385226 wrote: There was a time in the U.S. when government employment paid slightly less than a comparable position in the private sector. Lon;1385238 wrote: The government has been paying more salary and benefits way before the private sector reduced their salaries and benefits....

Snooz · Post by **Snooz** » Sun Feb 19, 2012 4:25 pm

Lon;1385238 wrote: The government has been paying more salary and benefits way before the private sector reduced their salaries and benefits.

I can assure you that isn't true. My salary has been frozen for three years and we used to see about 1.5% cost of living increase a year before that which wouldn't be a large increase by anyone's standards. But then I'm just a worker drone, maybe the high ranking feds on the East coast make over $70,000 a year.

Lon · Post by **Lon** » Sun Feb 19, 2012 5:16 pm

Civil Service Pay Scale-------------compare with private sector equivalent.

General Schedule (US civil service pay scale) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SOLAR_FLARE · Post by **SOLAR_FLARE** » Sun Feb 19, 2012 7:45 pm

It is not that public sector workers are making so much or getting such good benefits. It is that they have managed to hold onto a decent paycheck and benefits. Mostly this is due to the fact that more public sector jobs are still union jobs. Big surprise. The private sector has fallen far behind in wages and benefits. It is to the point that they are really being paid slave wages. Rights in the workplace have also been eroded.

koan · Post by **koan** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 12:07 am

It's my experience in Canada that the average person longs for a good "government job" because they get paid better, get better health benefit packages and the best retirement plans. Because my mother doesn't trust a career in the arts, she has often advised me to get a good government job if I can. It's the safe plan.

The interesting thing is that government jobs are funded by taxpayers who, to a large degree, make less than their government level counterparts. A former friend of mine with no specific qualifications got a job as a city hall clerk and made at least $5/hr more than a clerk anywhere else as a starting wage. So, without those taxpayers, there would be no job for her but with the taxpayers, they allow her to make more money than them.

That's not true of the higher level positions. The CEO of a successful corporation makes infinitely more than the mayor.

I think Ahso hit the mark on why larger corporations have reduced the quality of remuneration when he said "corporations have shifted their focus to the shareholder/investor and neglected the needs of the employee." They've also reduced the number of full time employees in favour of more part timers. A full time job is maximum 35hrs/wk now instead of the standard 40 and the companies prefer to only offer 22-25 to avoid providing benefits.

Once we're clear of jobs with corporations, we're left with small local companies who find their left over profits aren't buying them enough goods any more to make it worth their efforts so they try to pay minimum wage for all their staff. If the boss/owner is providing for all these other people s/he wants to be sure they can afford the jag to prove it.

Then we have all the people who make a living creating absolutely nothing and become incredibly wealthy through fraud or learning how to wheel and deal transactions with other people's money. Every dime they makes takes away from the communal surplus and causes someone in the country to live below the poverty line.

Government still pays well because no matter how much deficit they create, no one is calling them for collections.

fuzzywuzzy · Post by **fuzzywuzzy** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 1:15 pm

Government sector jobs here are the lowest paid. And there's no job security either.

M.A.S · Post by **M.A.S** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 1:26 pm

from where I came from , mainly private sector is much more better than the government employment. however, it depends on the job itself.

Ahso! · Post by **Ahso!** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 1:36 pm

M.A.S;1385357 wrote: from where I came from , mainly private sector is much more better than the government employment. however, it depends on the job itself.Hey M.A.S. it's good to see you around.