USA Today Emphasizes Triviality in Measuring Public Sector Compensation

The USA Today presents data showing that on average government workers were compensated about $2500 more than private sector workers. What they fail to do in the creation of their headline, which reads, "Wisconsin one of 41 states where public workers earn more," is actually adjust said headline for the real facts, which are buried in their statement of analysis:

The analysis included full and part-time workers and did not adjust for specific jobs, age, education or experience. In an earlier job-to-job comparison, USA TODAY found that state and local government workers make about the same salary as those in the private sector but get more generous benefits.

(USA Today)

If we read this correctly, USA Today concludes that public sector workers have better total compensation in earnings and benefits, and adjusting for jobs, public sector workers gain more benefits, but they say nothing about whether the previous study adjusts for experience or education, nor do they opt to see if the average is skewed by extremes on the ends. There is a lot of illuminating detail that is left dark.

Anyone eye-roving the paper will likely miss that significant fact that state workers tend to do no better than those of equivalent workers in the private sector in terms of salary. And while missing this fact, they will also fail to question whether the public sector should follow the corporate world down the low benefit path.

Corporations will simultaneously argue that healthcare is out of control, that the benefits must be curbed, while also fighting any real reform efforts that would make benefits for all sustainable.