By Robert E. Lee and Andrew M. Thompson
When Jon Lewis was FCCMA President, The Center for Florida Local Government Excellence was asked to undertake research on public verses private sector compensation in Florida. Below is a link to the research paper that Bob and Andrew completed that was recently published in the Journal of Compensation and Benefit Review.
Abstract – As state and local governments attempt to manage fiscal stress created by the Great Recession, the level of compensation received by public sector workers has become an increasingly debated policy issue. A significant amount of research exists that addresses national public sector compensation trends, but relatively few state-level studies have been performed. This analysis provides a preliminary analysis of public and private sector compensation in Florida. Using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau, sector-level comparisons are made between public and private sector workers within the state with regard to compensation, age and education. This sector-level comparison is then supplemented by an occupational analysis of career fields found in both sectors. The sector-level analysis suggests public sector workers in Florida are, on average, not only better compensated than those in the private sector in aggregate but are also considerably more educated and older. The occupational analysis suggests that public sector workers in Florida are in general less well-compensated than private sector workers employed in the same field, even when older and more highly educated on average.
The Paper: https://test.fccma.org/white-papersresearch-documents/
