November 7th, Lenore joins Power and Money to discuss the Ohio Union Vote
On November 7th, Lenore Hawkins, Gary B Smith and Carl Jeffers join Freedom Watch to discuss Ohio’s vote on public sector unions. Lenore’s perspective:
In the private sector, companies have to take care of their employees or they will unionize. If the employees do unionize, the union is limited by the pressure of competing companies. If the union pushes too hard, making labor costs too high relative to the competition, the company will fail. We’ve seen plenty of examples of how this happens. Thus competitive pressure serves to counterbalance the union’s push for increased wages and benefits.
In public sector, there is no such competition to keep the unions in check thus they are able to endlessly expand wages and benefits, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill.
According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, in 2009, State and Local workers total compensation was 45% above that of private sector workers, when both wages and benefits are taken into account.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics public sector benefits already grossly outweigh those of the private sector:
- Health care benefits are available to 71% of private sector employees but 88% of public sector employees.
- Retirement plans (defined-benefit or defined-contribution) are available to 67% of private sector employees but 90% of public sector employees. Among full-time employees, the shares rise to 76% and 99%, respectively.
- Life insurance benefits are available to 59% of private sector employees but 80% of public sector employees.
- Paid sick leave is available to 61% of private sector employees but 89% of public sector employees.
Additionally, during normal economic conditions, BLS data shows that layoffs and discharges in the public sector occur at just one-third the rate that is seen in the private sector. Similarly, the quit rate in the public sector is just one third of that in the private sector.
We’ve also seen a dramatic rise in the level of public sector unions. In 2008, 38.5% of all state and local workers were members o f unions, which is 5x the union share in the private sector of 7.6%.
