The rapid rise of public sector jobs is a cause for alarm. While the private sector still struggles with an anemic economy, the government has expanded its employment steadily throughout the economic downturn. A majority of private sector workers rightly believe that the public sector has better wage and benefit compensation than its private counterparts.
With the continuous expansion of public sector jobs comes the cost to the taxpayer to fund the numerous positions. In order to rein in the Leviathan, I propose the following: there should be a requirement that restricts any federal government employee from receiving a raise if it puts his compensation in excess of the wages and benefits paid for the same work in the private sector.
Such a restriction should include the cost of all benefits. Private companies have a several factors in place that help control runaway costs, chief among them being competition. The profit motive in the private sector keeps compensation at levels where economic factors limit them to their true market value, reflecting economically rational, “fair” compensation levels. On the other hand, there are no such competitive inhibitions in the public sector where politics and cronyism rather than economics create an “Alice in Wonderland” “negotiation” for wages and benefits.
By “competing”, per se, with the private sector for a raise, the government can help keep budget and deficits from soaring — and taxpayer from continuously being fleeced.