A new American Enterprise Institute (AEI) study on public employee pay in Wisconsin compared the salaries and benefits received by state and local government employees in Wisconsin to those received by private sector workers with similar education and experience and found these results:
- Fringe benefits: after Act 10 (Wisconsin's collective bargaining law), Wisconsin state workers receive health benefits more than twice as valuable and pension benefits more than 4.5 times as valuable as what workers in large private firms receive.
- Total compensation (salary plus benefits): before Act 10, Wisconsin state employees received total compensation (salary plus benefits) about 28 percent higher than comparable private sector workers. After Act 10, public employee compensation is about 22 percent higher.
- In dollar terms, the average Wisconsin state worker after Act 10 receives total compensation including benefits of $81,637 approximately versus $67,068 for a similarly-skilled private worker -- a difference of $14,569.
The study is available here.
