The Disparity Between Government & Private Employee Compensation In Illinois
Originally published 7/19/11, The Illinois Policy Institute
By Wendell Cox
The Problem
Illinoisans are seeing more of their household budgets go to shoulder the growing cost of government employee compensation packages—
packages made up of overly-generous pay and perks that most can only dream of. Righting this imbalance is one of the great social justice questions facing policymakers today.
In 2008, government employee wages and benefits accounted for one third of Illinois state government spending and two thirds of Illinois local government operations spending. Unfortunately, much of this spending is disproportionate with comparable private sector spending, and the gap is growing.