I'd like to know how they came up with those numbers, care to reference?
source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/153159-california-s-pension-...
which is actually more like 31.6% higher ... sorry, bad head-math
I don't know about California, but I know that NYC MTA garbage collectors (job: taking garbage out of the subway) make about $50-60k and gets to retire after 20 years of work.
[1] Very few people, even highly unskilled workers, earn minimum wage. Market rate tends to be higher.
[edit: to clarify, by "taking garbage out of the subway", I mean taking the trash bags out of the garbage cans and bringing them to the dumpster, sweeping, picking up refuse, etc. In the private sector, this does not cost $50-60k. I'm not talking about track work.]
Different people doing different jobs get paid differently, that's about all those statistics say.
Are you sure it's far from the truth?
It's probably hard to compare, but look at clerical job openings (something that requires no college degree) at a university or public agency office with those in the private sector.
Maybe comparable jobs aren't always 35% higher, but I think you'll find they are consistently higher
The Sancramento Bee asked the government for salary data and then did some number crunching. The average public sector employee, excluding the university system, made $68k (median: $66k).
The Bureau of Labor Statistics and other federal bodies maintain average wage stats for all states which should be comparable to those numbers. In California, the statewide average wage is $48k, the median about $36k.
If you want to spend some time doing your own stats analysis of how much pay is for "comparable" jobs across the two sectors, a) it will be tough -- "comparable worth" is a very subjective notion b) you'll have one of the best linkbait ideas of the century and c) expect death threats.
