Full‐time state and local government employees in Ohio are undercompensated by 6.0%, when compared with otherwise similar private‐sector workers.1 A rigorous analysis using a comprehensive monthly database2 that includes the necessary variables—education, experience, hours of work, organizational size, gender, race, ethnicity, citizenship, and disability— provides the most accurate comparison of public‐ and private‐sector compensation in Ohio.
The facts:
• On an annual basis, full‐time state and local workers and school employees are undercompensated by 6.0% in Ohio, in comparison with otherwise similar private‐sector workers. When comparisons are made for differences in annual hours worked, the gap remains, albeit at a smaller percentage of 3.5%.
• Ohio public‐sector workers are more highly educated than private‐sector workers; 49% of full‐ time public‐sector workers hold at least a four‐year college degree, compared with 26% in the private‐sector.
• Ohio’s state and local governments and school districts pay college‐educated workers 25% less in total compensation, on average, than private employers.
• In addition to having higher education levels, Ohio state and local government employees, on average, are also more experienced (23.2 years) than their private‐sector counterparts (21.7 years).
• Public employees—like all other American workers—have been victims of the worst recession since the Great Depression. In fact, severe financial problems as a result of the Great Recession have forced state, county, and municipal elected officials across the country to make massive cuts in spending. As a result, tens of thousands of public‐sector employees have been laid off and thousands more have been subject to forced furloughs, pay freezes, and cuts in benefits.
1 See the 2011 EPI Briefing Paper, Are Ohio Public Employees Overcompensated?, by Labor and Employment Relations Professor Jeffrey Keefe, Rutgers University. The study uses data collected primarily from the National Compensation Survey, and in accordance with standard survey practice, focuses on year‐round, full‐time public‐ and private‐sector employees. 2 U.S. Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics.
