Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Public Sector Pay

To all those complaining about how the public sector workers in Wisconsin are paid too much, allow me to retort ... with a question: "How much do you make?" And in the likely event that it is considerably more than the 46K that the average teacher in Wisconsin gets: "What it is that you do that is so valuable as to justify the lavish level of your compensation? Hmm???"

It's a tough one, but I'd say that on balance the relative levels of compensation in - to pick two industries out of the hat - banking and education, have very little to do with the social value of an average worker in those industries. And while the incentive structure of teacher's compensation in America may well be all fucked up, the level, if anything, is WAY too low, given the importance of the job.