Table 5. Mean hourly earnings of material movement and custodial occupations In private industry and

‘State and local governments, September 1994

Private industry Government
Guards, level | .. $6.62 $9.90
Guards, level It 19.58 11.51
Janitors... 7.17 9.15
Material handling laborers: 9.18 9.19
‘Shipping/receiving clerks 10.13 9.86
‘Truck drivers, fight truck 8.80 9.88
Truck drivers, madium truck. 14.02 11.65
Truck drivers, heavy truck 12.61 13.21
‘Truck drivers, tractor trailer 13.69 16.82
Warehouse specialists 12.01 11.48

} ‘Thirty-nine jobs with 109 associated work
levels met the publication criteria for both indus-
try sectors. Data for some of the higher work lev-
els did not meet publication criteria for State and
local government.
For additional information on work levels and
the scope of the OCS, see Robert W. Van Giezen,

—Endnotes—

“Occupational Pay in Private Goods- and Service-
Producing Industries,” Compensation and Work-
ing Conditions, June 1996, pp. 29-34; John E.
Buckley, “Occupational Pay Across Regions in
1994,” Compensation and Working Conditions,
June 1996, pp. 35-38; and Occupational Com-
pensation Survey: National Summary, 1994,

Bulletin 2479, Bureau of Labor Statistics, June
1996.

2For a more comprehensive examination of
private and public pay differences based on 1993
data, see Michael A. Miller, “The Public-Private
Pay Debate: What Do the Data Show?” Monthly
Labor Review, May 1996, pp. 18-29.

Compensation and Working Conditions September 1996 26



levels, government workers were
higher paid in 13 instances, lower
paid in 9, and equally paid in 1. The
widest gaps among the 23 observa-
tions were for word processors, level
TI, where average weekly earnings
of $593 for private industry employ-
ees were 23 percent higher than
earnings of comparable workers in
government. The largest advantage
of government employees over
private industry workers was for
general clerks, level I, where the
average for government ($289) was
8 percent higher. (See table 3.)

Maintenance and toolroom
occupations

Among the 9 maintenance and
toolroom jobs and levels available
for comparison, 6 were higher
paying in the private sector, ranging
from about a 4 percent advantage for

motor vehicle mechanics and
electronics technicians, level Ii, to
an 11 percent advantage for electron-
ics technicians, level II. However,
the average hourly rate for govern-
ment maintenance machinists
produced the largest pay advantage
among all 9 jobs, averaging 22
percent more than the $16.58 rate
for private industry machinists. (See
table 4.)

Materlal movement and custo-
dial occupations

In 6 of the 10 material movement
and custodial observations available
for comparison, State and local
government employees enjoyed
higher earnings than private
industry workers. For these 6
observations, the differences in
average hourly earnings ranged from
a one-cent advantage for material

handling laborers to a 50 percent
difference for guards, level I. About
90 percent of guards, level I, are
employed in private sector service-
producing industries, most of them
in low-paying guard services
establishments. The pay advantage
of government workers drops to
about 6 percent when compared with
private industry guards who do not
work for guard services firms.

Employment in the guard services
industry is often of short duration, and
the termination of an establishment’s
contract is frequently coupled with the
termination of the employees’
services. However, it is not uncom-
mon for the same workers to continue
their duties with the guard services
company that wins the new contract.
In contrast, State and local govern-
ment positions are more often career
service jobs. (See table 5.)

Table 3. Mean weekly earnings of office clerical occupations by work levels In private industry and State and local governments,

September 1994
Level! Level Il Level Ill Level IV LevelV
Private |Govern- | Private | Govern: | Private | Govern- | Private | Govern- | Private | Govern-
ment ment ment ment ment
$298 $298 $378 $438 $451 $535 $514 - -
267 289 314 37 405 410 485. 462 - -
317 327 400 404 - - - . - .
313 304 393 394 482 491 555. 591 - :
384 356 463 438 538 503 638 584 $71 $714
370 373 451 468 583 481 - - - -
1 Switchboard operator-receptionists is a single-level job. NOTE: Dashes indicate data did not meet publication criteria or
work level was not studied.

Table 4. Mean hourly earnings of maintenance and toolroom occupations In private industry and State and
local governments, September 1994

Private industry ‘Govemment
General maintenance workers .. $10.16 $11.20
Maintenance electricians .. 17.33 7.11
Maintenance electronic technicians, level 11,36 11.47
Maintenance electronic technicians, level I! 17.52 15.79
19.89 19.08
16.58 20.21
16.26 15.06
15.33 14.80
18.94 16.01

25 Compensation and Working Conditions September 1996



Pay in Private

Industry and

State and Local

Governments,
1 994 BY JOHN E. BUCKLEY

rofessional and administrative employees in private industry generally enjoyed

higher earnings than their counterparts in State and local governments. However,

in other white-collar occupations—technical, protective services, and clerical—
the earnings of government employees were higher. The earnings of blue-collar occupa-
tions were about equal in the private and public sectors.

In its 1994 surveys, the Bureau's
Occupational Compensation Survey
(OCS) program obtained earnings
data for 46 occupational categories.
Most of the occupations selected for
the study are found in a variety of
industries, and the detail obtained
from the surveyed jobs produced 145
work levels, ranging from single-
level jobs (mostly blue-collar) to
occupations with 8 work levels
(engineers). This examination of
earnings in private industry and
State and local government is
confined to the jobs and associated
work levels that met publication
criteria for both industry sectors.'
This article highlights some of the
differences found between the two
industry sectors.? Charts 1 and 2
illustrate the mixed result in average

John E. Buckley is an economist in the Divi-
sion of Compensation Data Analysis and Planning,
Bureau of Labor Statistics. Telephone (202) 606-
6204.

earnings for selected private industry
and government white- and blue-
collar workers in highly populated
occupations.

Professional and administra-
tive occupations

Published estimates are available
for 44 work levels in the professional
and administrative occupational
group. For 29 of these estimates,
differences in average earnings for
workers performing at the same level
were 5 percent or more between
Private industry and government,
with a majority of the estimates (27
of 29) favoring private employees.
The widest earnings gap was for
attomeys, level IV, where the private
industry weekly average ($1,720)
was 29 percent higher than that of
government. Registered nurses
(level II specialists) and budget
analysts, level IV, averaged 10 and 6
percent more, respectively, in
government than in the private

sector. The 15 remaining published
estimates for professional and
administrative workers showed that
employees in government averaged
between 96 and 104 percent of the
earnings of their private sector
counterparts, with each sector about
equally sharing the high and low
positions. (See table 1.)

Technical and protective
service occupations

Technical and protective service
workers in State and local govern-
ment had higher earnings than their
counterparts in private industry in
14 of the 23 work levels available for
comparison. The introduction of
nursing occupations to the 1994
survey greatly affected this compari-
son: salaries for government workers
outpaced salaries for their private
sector counterparts in 6 of the 7
work levels studied for licensed
practical nurses and nursing assis-
tants, The advantage enjoyed

Compensation and Working Conditions September 1996 22



Chart 1. Weekly salarles for selected white-collar occupations In private
industry and State and local governments, September 1994

$1,400

1,200

1,000

800

600

400

200

Engineers IV Programmers III Nursing General clerks III

assistants II
] Private industry Il State and local governments

Chart 2. Hourly wages for selected blue-collar occupations in private industry and
State and local governments, September 1994.

$20

General Maintenance Janitors Warehouse
maintenance mechanics, specialists
workers motor vehicle

El Private industry Il State and local governments

23 Compensation and Working Conditions September 1996



Table 1. Mean weekly earnings of professional and administrative occupations by work levels in private industry and State and local

governments, September 1994
Level! Level ll Level Ill Level iV LevelV Level VI
|Govern-| |Govern-} }Govern| |Govern-| |Govern- Govern:
Private] Private x | Private Private |", ent Private ment | Private rent
$510 | $604 | $582 | $774 | $733 [$1003 | $922 | $1298) $1149 : .
692 | 1049 860 | 1368 | 1091 1720 | 1331 - - - .
627 768 761 904 890 | 1099 | 1045 1320] 1216/$1575 | $1326
576 71 705 960 878 . - - - - -
. : - | 1464 | 1489 : - - - - -
- | 619 | e392 | 806 | 833 | 918] 972 - - - -
482 CAT 609 865. 770 | 1027 966 - - - .
478 624 575 749 717 884 854 - - - .
699 | 892 | 889 | 1056 | 973 - - - - . .
1072 | 1333 | 1227 : - - - - - - -
511 584 604 765 799 | 1006 953 | 1302) 1186 : -
979 | 1389 | 1186 | 1737 | 1436 - - - - - -

NOTE: Dashes indicate that data did not mest publication criteria

or the work level was not studied.

Table 2. Mean weekly earnings of technical and protective service occupations by work levels in private Industry and State and local

governments, September 1994
Level! Level Il Level lil Level IV LevelV
Pate || prim |S | rate | 20%" | pate [SO | ram | Some
$358 $434 $429 $559 $545 $668 $641 - -
373 479 504 605 621 - - -
- : : 610 606 739 749 .
349 426 457 570 555 699 672 $872 $771
462 453 427 527 542 - - - -
322 272 300 349 425 444 480 - -
661 - - - - - - - -
‘ NOTE: Dashes indicate data did not meet publication
* Firefighters Is @ single-level job. criteria or the work level was not studied.
by government workers ranged from establishments call for large num- industry rate. More than 98 percent
a modest 1 percent for engineering bers of workers at lower work levels of protective service workers were
technicians, level IV, to 36 percent (relative to their needs for higher employed in governments, where

for nursing assistants, level I. (See
table 2.)

The weekly average rate for
government nursing assistants, level
1 ($322), deviated from expected
behavior by exceeding the average
rate of nursing assistants, level II, in
both industry sectors. A similar
anomaly occurred for licensed
practical nurses. This type of
deviation surfaces occasionally when
staffing requirements of high-paying

level workers), while the reverse
staffing pattern is occurring in
lower-paying establishments.
Average weekly earnings of
computer operators and civil
engineering technicians were
generally higher in the private sector
than public ones at higher work
levels. The widest gap was for civil
engineering technicians, level V,
where the government rate ($771)
was only 88 percent of the private

their pay exceeded that of their
Private industry counterparts by 7
percent in the case of firefighters
and 18 percent for police officers,
level I.

Clerical occupations

Clerical workers in State and
local governments were higher paid
than similar workers in private
industry nearly 60 percent of the
time. In the 23 observed work

Compensation and Working Conditions September 1996 24