In a new report on the benefits of public and private employment, “Public vs. Private Compensation,” the Alabama Policy Institute writes, “over the years, public sector compensation rapidly outpaced that of the private sector.” Not only that, “State employees work an average of 189 hours less than private sector employees per year–[or] four and a half weeks less than private sector employees.”
The excessive compensation costs Alabama taxpayers an extra $295 million to $360 million a year, or $169 to $209 per household, according to the report.
“The IOUs state and local governments around the U.S. are passing on to their successors stand at $3.5 trillion,” according to the report.
Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute writes in “The Mounting Cost of Deferred Responsibility in Government,” “the business side of government has been handed a towering stack of IOUs. State and local governments throughout the U.S. have made promises that they cannot afford and have financed their decisions by passing IOUs along to future generations.
