JUL/AUG/SEP - Long Beach Police Officers Association

educational categories (less than
high school, high school
diploma, some college, college
degree, etc), they found that
Michigan employees earned less
within every educational category.
This is the fallacy known
as Simpson’s Paradox.
The Michigan study determined
that the average state worker
appeared to earn more only
because the state hired more of
those in the highly trained and
educated categories, not because
workers with the same education
and training earned more in the
public sector.
The Bender/Heywood study concluded,
in part, “State and local
governments consist disproportionately
of occupations that
demand more skills and earn
higher wages. As a consequence,
the typical state or local
government employee has
substantially more education,
training, and experience. Adjusting
for these differences…
explains most of the observed
earnings advantage of the typical
state and local worker.”
Their study revealed that public
sector employees are more than
twice as likely to have at least a
bachelor’s degree. This disparity
in education and training
will account for the overall better
compensation of the public
sector worker. When you accurately
compare the two workers,
it becomes clear that the
greater education and training
demanded by the public sector
position requires more compensation.
The fact that the average private
sector employee earns
more compensation than the
comparable public employee
holds true even after adding
benefits such as pension and
insurance.
The study indicated that
citizens should expect higher
public service benefits because
a more educated and trained
employee should have greater
benefits. Even in the private
sector, benefits are greater for
the more educated. Since the
public sector “consists disproportionately
of the educated,
we would expect the average
level of benefits to be higher in
the public sector.” However,
even after adding benefits, the
equally trained and educated
public employees still lag
behind their private sector counterpart
by 6.8-10.4 percent.
The economic recession has hurt
both the private and public sector.
Everybody, including the
public sector worker, has obviously
made sacrifices; however, I
would request prudence when
moving forward. Crisis often
leads people to search for scapegoats
and miraculous panaceas.
Some are trying to blame the current
government finance problems
on public worker pay and
pensions. The cure to the ill is
sold as “bringing public sector
compensation ‘in line’ with
private sector wages.”
This study revealed that the longterm
patterns indicate public
worker compensation is not
excessive. It found that “public
sector workers earn more on
average than private sector workers,
but less than they would
earn if they took their skills to
the private sector.” As much as
the hype and hysteria in the
media, political, and public
forums would like to make you
believe that public employees are
overcompensated; when properly
compared to the private sector
employee, public employees are
a bargain.
GREG AND LAURIE MANIS, REALTORS
(562)972-4382 OR (562)822-4382
LLMANIS@MSN.COM
DRE LIC #’S 01274067, 01478187
A Dedicated Long Beach Police Officer For 23Years
Married For 25 Years With Two Wonderful Sons
As A Team We Can Help You
With All Your Real Estate Needs!
Editor’s Note: As of July 6,
2010, the Long Beach Police
Department had 910 sworn
employees, and 489 of those
officers had some kind of college
degree (53.7 percent). The
breakout is: 134 with an associate’s
degree, 274 with a bachelor’s
degree, 80 with a master’s
degree, and 1 with a doctorate.
The LBPOA encourages all of our
members to continue their
advanced education studies.
RAP SHEET 23