IT'S TIME TO FREEZE GOVERNMENT WAGES

Subject: txt mny bbro sclm -
In a recession when wages are stagnating, you would expect governments to capitalize on the loose labor market by holding the line on employee compensation. But public sector compensation (as measured by the Department of Labor) rose 42 percent faster than private sector compensation over the last three years:

• Since the end of 2006, hourly total compensation (wages plus benefits) has risen 6.5 percent for private sector workers, essentially keeping pace with inflation; but state and local government workers saw their hourly compensation rise 9.2 percent.
• Federal civilian workers (about 10 percent of the public sector civilian workforce) are excluded from the above measure, but they did even better, receiving Congressionally-approved wage rises totaling 9.9 percent over the same period.

Why have public sector wages grown so fast?

• In some cases, it's because employees are receiving scheduled raises under contracts 'negotiated' [extorted] by public employee labor unions.
• But in other cases, governments have agreed to pay increases during the recession, or been forced into them by arbitrators.
• Transit agencies in New York and Washington, D.C., have seen their budget crises exacerbated by arbitrator-mandated pay increases, leading to service cuts.
• And Congress just approved another 2 percent pay increase for federal workers, effective this month.

If states and localities had kept pace with private sector wage growth over the last three years, state budget gaps would be approximately $36 billion less than they are today.

Or, put differently, the last three years' excess growth in public sector compensation necessitates an

extra $36 BILLION

in annual tax collections or program cuts,...

READ MORE