Does an average budget analyst, say, get paid lower in a government job compared to at a private employer?
Can not speak for all of Europe, but that would be the case in Sweden, yes. Job security - in particular in recessions - is considered worth a lower wage.
santiago:
But the real argument that cutting state employee wages is really a tax on the rich, broadly speaking, is that government employees tend to be higher skilled just due to the kinds of work that governments need done, compared to the private sector at large, which has a lot more use for lower skill employees.
The Swedish government employs anything from janitors to professors. Do we have some data to back up there being a difference? A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
Job security - in particular in recessions - is considered worth a lower wage.
Another point is that in the public sector you could usually expect to be protected from all the moronic MBA "management" fads that periodically sweep through the private sector when there's an excess of failed businessmen who form "consultancies." This is, at least in the high-end jobs, worth a considerable gap in remuneration.
That's changing with the infection of New Public Management, and the long-term consequences of this in terms of wage demands from mobile high-skill professionals is yet to be seen, but I suspect that it won't be pretty. (And of course, the New Public Management infection brings along the professional culture of private sector mid- and high-level managers, along with the graft, corruption and outrageous paychecks, bonuses and golden parachutes that we've come to know and love...)
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
