All about finance, without the fluff.
Comparision of private industry and Government in respect to medical and retirement benefits, life insurance and paid leave.
Employment Benefits of Government and Industrial Employees
As this chart illustrates, the benefits offered to employees of state and local government organizations greatly exceed benefits offered to employees in the private industry. Employee participation in the benefits offered is also much higher in the public sector. In every benefit category with the exception of paid leave, which is likely categorized differently in each industry, the public sector offers more benefits and sees greater participation among its employees than in the private sector.
Types of Benefits
The first chart covers four benefit categories, including medical and retirement benefits, life insurance, and paid leave. Other than paid holiday and paid vacation, the state and local government institutions offer benefits to employees at a much larger percentage than their private industry counterparts.
Medical benefits are offered to 88% of government employees with 73% participation. In the private industry, 71% of employees are offered medical benefits and only 52% participate. Government workers are offered retirement benefits in 90% of the cases with participation at 86%. That compares to 67% and 51% in the private industry, respectively.
The greatest disparity in both benefits offered and participation occurs in the retirement benefits category. State and local governments offer retirement benefits to 90% of employees with an 86% participation rate. That compares to the 67% of private companies that offer retirement benefits and 51% participation rate by the segment’s employees.
Paid leave is the only category in which private industry employees appear to be competitive with government employees. Although 89% of government employees are offered paid sick leave versus only 61% of private industry workers, some of the difference is made up in paid vacations and paid holidays. Private industry employees receive paid vacation in 77% of the cases and paid holiday in 78%. That compares to government employees who receive paid vacation 60% of the time and paid holiday 68%.
Benefits by Worker Category
The trend of government employees being offered more benefits than their private industry equivalents is continued when viewed by job category. Most categories favor the public sector by an overwhelming margin.
In the professional and related category, which includes careers such as teachers and nurses, 89% of government employees were offered benefits versus 82% in the private industry.
Protective services saw the largest discrepancy between public and private benefit offerings with 89% of public sector employees being offered benefits with only 56% in the private sector receiving the same offer.
Sales and office workers in private industry were offered benefits 72% of the time while state and local workers in the same field received benefit offers in 88% of instances.
Nearly all employees (95%) involved in the fields of natural resources, construction, and repair are offered benefits. However, just 77% of employees in private industry can make the same claim.
It’s somewhat more balanced in the production, transportation, and moving business where 83% of state and local government employees are offered benefits compared to 77% in private industry.
The private industry’s strongest segment is management, business, and financial in which 94% of employees are offered benefits. However, there is no relevant field to which it can be compared in state and local government.
Take-up Rates
As you might expect, the percentage of employees who accepted the benefit plans offered to them is greater in the public sector. 84% of government employees accept the medical benefits they are offered versus 74% in the private sector. Retirement benefits are accepted by 95% of state and local government workers compared to just 77% of private industry employees. However, nearly everybody accepted the life insurance benefit offered to them with 97% in the public sector and 96% in the private industry accepting the benefit.
As the data presented by the Labor Department so clearly illustrates, employees in state and local governments are offered benefits at a much larger rate than those employed in the private industry. Public sector employees also accept the benefits offered in larger percentages than individuals employed by private sector businesses.
16 Comments to Calculation of The United States Credit Score
by Frank Rizzo
On September 24, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Still better then my credit score, which is a whopping 545.
by Jacob
On September 24, 2009 at 11:43 pm
If would be fun to see other countries…
by Steven Vasquez
On September 24, 2009 at 11:55 pm
Ahh, but it looks like the United States has some unfunded liabilities (promised contracts to our senior citizens) of over $65 trillion plus the quasi-private Federal Reserve also made loan guarantees of another $13 Trillion, making the total debt closer to $90 Trillion rather than just $11 trillion. Hmm, I think that will reduce its score a little. Plus it looks like creditors like China are starting to reconsider its credit worthiness. So, what is the new credit score then?
by Nick HUbbard
On September 25, 2009 at 6:08 am
Hey Steven Vasquez, are you even from America? Or are you just some smug European who thinks they are worth the shit and time to actually write an idiotic opinion based on no facts whatsoever.
by AvangionQ
On September 25, 2009 at 8:00 am
When the escalating debt exceeds the GDP, the debt will become insurmountable and the economy will collapse under the weight … historically speaking, when an economy collapses, a violent revolution almost always follows … since this is something I’d wish to avoid, dealing with the escalating debt seems only prudent … auditing and abolishing the Federal Reserve Bank and absconding upon the debt upon interest loaned through fractional banking systems seems a good first step …
by lol
On September 25, 2009 at 4:52 pm
I like my credit score like I enjoy weed
420
by James
On September 25, 2009 at 9:53 pm
At least your country ran debt free at one point.
Canada has been in debt from day one.
by Josh
On September 25, 2009 at 10:02 pm
You forgot one thing….
What about our annual income and things such as our assets that are tough to measure.
1. Ability to grow all of our own food and export it at a very cheap price.
2. Our education level is not exactly the best out there but since we’re the third largest in population and in area its pretty decent.
3. Plus we are the biggest kid/bully on the block our military and our influence is global reaching nearly every corner no other country has this.
by Chris Taylor
On September 26, 2009 at 1:10 am
hey Nick HUbbard are you so stinking BLIND to reality that you would shun anyone who says anything you don’t agree with or is negative about our country?
ARE YOU AN AMERICAN?
you see REAL americans CARE about their country even if it means saying HE we @#&)%# things up lets fix it.
The fed and our debt are KILLING US and your like are you even american because he POINTED THIS OUT TO YOU.
people like you. Lemmings. Make me sick. REAL patriots are the ones who point out the BS for what it is AND try to do something about it.
by Paul Jones
On September 26, 2009 at 10:46 am
An amusing little exercise, though evaluating state debt as if it were individual debt is bound to be misleading.
I would add, though, under Repayment History: originally, most of these bonds, or the “federal reserve notes,” for that matter, were promises of payment in hard currency — that is, specific amounts of physical metal. Over the course of generations, they eventually were changed into promises of nothing at all. Well, with the possible exception: “We promise not to make too many more empty promises, too quickly.”
If I were a commodities trader, and tried that, I doubt that my own credit score would be so high. Assuming it were even measurable after the lawsuits, bankruptcy, and prosecution for fraud. Sometimes being a state has its advantages. For a while.
by Dave S
On September 28, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Steven Vasquez is exactly right. Our Govt has made more promises then we (taxpayers) can keep. Even the FDIC, which is supposed to backstop our bank deposits, is so underfunded it has to take loans from the very banks it is supposed to be guaranteeing. Better open your eyes, Nick. We are up to our eyeballs in personal and collective debt. That is why the Fed is purposely devaluing the USDollar.
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