Thread: Protesting in Wisconsin....Just the beginning?

Originally Posted by 32t

On the TV news tonight I was told that the average public/government employee in Wisc is paid 4.something percent less than the private sector. As a national average it is around 7% less. Gotta do more research but food for thought.

Tim

I doubt they're factoring in benefits, etc. Take home pay is only piece of the puzzle. When I worked a municipal job I had free healthcare, paid holidays including the government holidays that no one in the private sector gets off, two weeks paid vacation, roughly the same amount of paid sick days, automatic guaranteed "cost of living" increases, taxpayer contributions to my retirement fund, free access to higher education class opportunities while on the clock. It all added up to much more than what my actual hourly wage was (which was also easily equal to the private sector).

One more than one occasion while I worked there an employee would leave for what they thought were greener pastures in the private sector. In most of those cases, those employees would come back asking for their job back.

Chris L