For Immediate Release: Thursday, January 6, 2011
Contact: Phoebe Silag or Karen Conner, news@epi.org 202-775-8810

Workers in the state and local public sector earn less on average than their private-sector counterparts, in terms of both wages and total compensation.  Today’s Snapshot shows that public sector workers in state and local government earn, on average, $6,061 per year less in annual wages than their private-sector counterparts. When measuring total compensation that includes non-cash compensation such as health and insurance benefits, the gap narrows, but the average public employees still earns $2,001 less per year.

For a detailed analysis, see EPI briefing paper, Debunking the Myth of the Overcompensated Public Employee