Public Divided on Pay Cuts For State Employees

Only 40% of adults favor a 10% across the board pay cut for public employees. Government has grown so large over the last few decades, almost everyone has a friend or relative on the public payroll.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 40% of Adults favor a 10% pay cut for all state employees to help reduce state spending.  Forty-one percent (41%), however, oppose an across-the-board pay cut like this.  Nineteen percent (19%) are not sure.  (To see survey question wording, click here.)

I think most Americans have trouble coming to grips with how overcompensated public employees are.

Overall, federal workers earned an average salary of $67,691 in 2008 for occupations that exist both in government and the private sector, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The average pay for the same mix of jobs in the private sector was $60,046 in 2008, the most recent data available. 

These salary figures do not include the value of health, pension and other benefits, which averaged $40,785 per federal employee in 2008 vs. $9,882 per private worker, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

When you combine wages and benefits, an average worker made $108,476 and that data is from 2008. A average worker in the private sector only made $69,928 combined.