Punch line: If public-sector employees just worked as many hours as their private counterparts, governments at all levels could save more than $100 billion in annual labor costs.
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According to a report in the WSJ …
New evidence from a comprehensive and objective data set confirms that the “underworked” government employee is more than a stereotype.
Based on the American Time Use Survey, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics administers to a large and representative sample of American households each year:
- During a typical workweek, private-sector employees work about 41.4 hours.
- Federal workers, by contrast, put in 38.7 hours
- State and local government employees work 38.1 hours.
In a calendar year, private-sector employees work the equivalent of 3.8 more 40-hour workweeks than federal employees and 4.7 more weeks than state and local government workers.
Put another way, private employees spend around an extra month working each year compared with public employees.
If the public sector worked that additional month, governments could theoretically save around $130 billion in annual labor costs without reducing services.
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Another reason that I hate to pay taxes …
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