[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by GGG

Iggy do you have stats on pay comparisons between Public Union positions and private union positions.

I remember seeing it somewhere but can't find it. I recall that private sector union positions make less than their public sector counterparts for comparable jobs.

There are factors beyond who the employer is that contribute to that gap. Any industry will be more likely to see increases in compensation at a faster rate where there is a higher density of union membership compared to one which has a lower density. Public sector employees have a significantly higher union membership rates than their private sector counterparts, this gives public sector workers an edge over private sector workers because when there are less comparables.

Using only hourly rates of pay doesn’t give a very accurate comparison either. An employee earning $24/hour may have a higher hourly rate than an employee earning $22/hour with a different employer, however if the $24/hour employee has to make a pension contribution of $3/hour to their plan and the $22/hour employee gets a similar pension but their employer makes all contributions on their behalf then the $22/hour employee is actually earning more take home pay then the employer making $24/hour. Private sector employees are also able to get different forms of compensation and work benefits that public sector employees cannot. An example of this would be employee share programs or stock options. While these types of benefits won’t have a direct impact on the hourly rate of pay for an employee, they certainly play a factor in determining an employee’s overall compensation.

So while unionization benefits the worker it shows that the government does not fight back hard enough in negotiations or that due to the lack of moral hazard the unions are more likely to negotiate harder.

Who would have thought that after 40 years of “fiscally conservative” governments someone would be saying the government didn’t do a good enough job of handling the province’s long term financial liabilities?

We’ve been over this before but a public sector job can be eliminated or privatized at any time. The more expensive any public service is, the more likely it will be targeted when public service cuts are being considered, so while how much of a moral hazard public service employees face may be debatable, whether or not they face any moral hazard at all is not.