Brian Dickerson: Governor recognizes data on employee compensation doesn't say it all 1:32 AM, Feb. 3, 2011 | 76 Comments
*http://www.freep.com/article/20110203/COL04/102030466/Brian-Dickerson-Governor-recognizes-data-on-employee-compensation-doesn-t-say-it-all?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s Four days after Gov. Rick Snyder convened an economic summit to explain to business leaders (and anyone else who cared to watch from the virtual bleacher seats) precisely how dire our state's fiscal outlook is, I'm still scratching my head over Snyder's decision to highlight the gap between public- and private-sector worker compensation. In a state where Republican politicians seldom pass up a chance to demonize government employee unions, the new governor has been careful to avoid suggesting that public-sector compensation is primarily responsible for Michigan's growing budgetary deficit. And he warned reporters covering the summit not to leap to that conclusion, pointing out that data suggesting the average public-sector worker earns twice as much as his or her private-sector counterpart had not been adjusted for differences in the education, experience levels and job responsibilities of the two worker groups. In other words, the only epiphany here may be just that full-time workers who obtain college degrees, perform demanding work and have acquired decades of on-the-job experience tend to earn more than part-time employees who have neither comparable expertise nor job responsibilities. Some unskilled private-sector workers might consider that an injustice, but most of us recognize it as a fact of life. "These are not apples-to-apples" comparisons, Snyder conceded after this week's summit. "It's what I call macro-data." So why bother? That strikes me as a pretty disingenuous disclaimer for a man whose party is champing at the bit to cut teachers, public safety workers and bureaucrats of every stripe down to size. If the comparisons between private- and public-sector compensation aren't relevant, why bring them up at all -- unless you're hoping to stoke taxpayer resentment of government workers? But there are a number of reasons why vilifying public-sector employees is a bad strategy. The first, as Snyder has already tacitly admitted, is that relevant numbers don't support the government-workers-are-eating the-taxpayers'-lunch narrative some GOP demagogues are peddling. Studies that compare workers with similar education credentials and job responsibilities reveal far smaller disparities between public- and private-sector compensation levels -- just as any economist who studies job markets would expect them to. The second reason why focusing on what workers make is a bad idea is that it diverts public and legislative attention from more significant inefficiencies in the provision of employee benefits. Snyder's treasurer, Andy Dillon, likes to point out that some municipalities pay more than 10 times as much as top-tier private-sector employers to administer their employees' health benefits. That doesn't mean public-sector health benefits are 10 times as generous, it means only that local units of government have been far less successful than private employers in exploiting economies of scale, and that slashing employee benefit levels may yield little savings, especially if Michigan's myriad units of government fail to leverage their collective bargaining power more effectively. Who's he gonna call? But the best argument against demonizing government workers -- and the one that ought to be the most obvious to a former CEO like Snyder -- is that any enterprise, public or private, is only as good as the people who work for it. The new governor's ambitions to conjure a smarter, more efficient government are doomed if those he's counting on to execute his game plan become convinced their boss wants to single them out as scapegoats. Most of the goodwill Snyder currently enjoys arises from the public's hope is that he is a pragmatist who prefers hard numbers to soft-headed ideology. That makes it especially important that he choose numbers that illuminate Michigan's plight, not those that merely inflame his constituents. Contact Brian Dickerson: 313-222-6584 or _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
