Bad apples: the myth of the highly skilled public-service elite.

• Author: Cavanaugh, Tim
• Position: Public-sector compensation

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IF YOU DON'T think it's fair for government employees to make substantially more money than people who do the same jobs in the private sector, a burgeoning public relations campaign is here to say you're wrong. During the last two years, with public-sector compensation becoming a bitter political issue, a host of new studies have appeared, arguing that government workers deserve the big bucks, thanks to their extra-special skills and book learnin'.

"Are Wisconsin public employees over-compensated?" asked Jeffrey H. Keefe in a February 2011 briefing paper for the union-backed Economic Policy Institute. They are not, Keefe decided, as long as you use "comparisons controlling for education, experience, organizational size, gender, race, ethnicity, citizenship, and disability."

That same month Andrew Cannon of the Iowa Policy Project (a research outfit founded by longtime state politician David Osterberg) issued a report entitled "Apples to Apples: Private-Sector and Public-Sector Compensation in Iowa" Assertions that public employees' wages and benefits exceed the norms of the private sector, Cannon wrote, "neglect the differences in education, work experience and occupation between a public-school teacher and a teen-ager working for the minimum wage at a fast-food restaurant." Cannon's argument echoed March 2010 comments from National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley, who told USA Today that "apples to oranges" comparisons were useless because public-sector work "has more complexity and requires more skill."

"So why has the idea gained currency that public workers are overpaid?" demanded journalist Alan Farnham in a February 2011 article at ABC News. Farnham likewise called for an "apples to apples" comparison and chastised hard-number hawks who rely on data from a sketchy outfit called the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

You get no points for guessing that the BLS numbers unambiguously show public-sector workers making more than equivalent private-sector workers. Total employer compensation cost in 2011 averaged $40.76 per hour for state and local workers; for private industry workers it was $28.24 per hour. The disparities are also big for federal workers. A janitor working for Uncle Sam makes $30,110 a year, while his or her private-sector peer makes $24,188. Federal graphic designers, "recreation workers" and even P.R. flacks all make between So percent and 100 percent more than their...