Public Sector Employees Should Be Treated The Same As Private Sector Workers

As the economy has worsened and millions have lost their jobs, numerous news pieces and opinion columns have noted the disparity between private sector workers and public sector workers. The fact is that private sector workers have been hit disproportionately harder in terms of job losses. The numbers are actually staggering. Most of the lost jobs, more than ninety percent by some estimates, have occurred in the private sector.

There are several long term forces at work in addition to the short term economic cycle which is currently in a recession stage, however those complicated long term forces are beyond the scope of this article. Public sector employees, whether they are policemen, firemen, teachers, municipal workers, and even lawmakers, are protected and shielded from real world economic conditions in a very unfair manner. The problem can be mostly attributed to state mandates, collective bargaining agreements, and of course the political influence of the public worker unions. The issue has thankfully garnered a lot of attention over the last year.

Recently, several candidates for political office have made it one of their campaign's main themes. It has to do with the unfairness of the mandated contracts and the fact that the electorate has to foot the bill for these wages and benefits which are not reflective of real world economic factors. It has gotten to the point where the tax burden in some cases is just too much for most folks and something has to give.

The most onerous taxes are property taxes because they have gone up the most in terms of percentage. Property taxes are also directly related to the cost of local government of which the largest single component is public employee salaries and benefits.

Basically, the people are increasingly against a system where a police officer can retire after twenty years or so and due to padding the last couple of years with extra over time, can vastly increase his or her annual pension. Or a system where a union teacher can retire and then basically cash in unused sick days that they can bank over their careers and get a check upon retirement that can equal nearly a year's pay.

Most people that work for corporations, or people that own and run a small business, don't have that option. Forget the fact that it may be illegal to pad in this fashion and even forget the fact that the policeman or fireman may have served the community well for those twenty years, it just isn't fair to the rest of taxpayers for one group of people to basically insulate themselves from the crisis that the people who ultimately pay the bills must deal with. The debate has begun and future elections will be heavily impacted by this issue. This disparity cannot go on forever.

By: Rich Pagano

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