Our bloated bureaucracy exposed (yet again)

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business’ (CFIB) released a telling report yesterday on private vs public sector jobs that confirms yet again the increasing advantage our government workers enjoy with their salaries and benefits.

The CFIB report “Wage Watch” exposes the bloated bureaucracy in Canada, documenting a 10%-15% “wage gap” between higher paid public sector workers and their private sector counterparts performing the same jobs.

The findings show workers in the private sector earn $8,150 a year less than their public sector counterparts, and work six hours more per week – for working the same job. The report notes that there is “a huge wage and benefits advantage for public sector workers over the rest of us.”

The Canadian public sector includes 3.6 million employees, which represents more than one in five jobs. With the math as it is, every 4 working Canadians are taxed extra to pay for the fifth government worker.

The CFIB comparisons use the National Household Survey, which represent average full-time employment earnings for more than 7.2 million Canadians. Important to note – the report excludes jobs such as police officers, firefighters, government deputy ministers, university professors and military personnel, for which there is no private sector equivalent (ed. – if the salaries and benefits of these occupations were included, expect the gap to be even greater!).

At 2010 pay levels, the gap is biggest in the federal government, where employees hold a salary premium of 13 per cent, which swells to 33.2 per cent when you factor in benefits.

This “overpayment” of Canada’s bloated public sector costs taxpayers $20-billion annually. For cash-strapped governments that is money that could be used to build roads, bridges and schools, fund health care or energy programs.

CFIB spokesperson Marilyn Braun-Pollon stated in media reports yesterday, “Our research findings point to huge wage and benefits advantages for public sector workers over the rest of us. It’s the elephant in the room when it comes to setting public policy across the country.”

“There aren’t the same market forces in the public sector. The government has monopoly power. Canadians in the private sector see their tax dollars paying for these wages and benefits that they can only dream of. Policy-makers need to start reining in these misaligned costs.”

The ever-rising costs of big government is a train-wreck-in-the-making that By George has been pining away on for years…. in articles tagged “big government”