In a recent article in In These Times<\/a>,<\/em> Joyce Chen takes a look at popular conservative myth: the overpaid, lazy government worker.<\/a> According to Chen, conservatives on the midterm campaign trail are characterizing civil servants \u201cas shiftless paper-pushers fattened on your tax dollar.\u201d The GOP intent is to drive a wedge between civil servants and private sector workers thus providing populist support for \u201cshrinking\u201d government and privatizing government functions. For example, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, a new up and coming star of the GOP, has been accusing public employees of making lavish wages and benefits while ordinary private sector workers are struggling with cutbacks and shrinking paychecks. He has promised to cut the number of New Jersey state workers, cut the remaining workers benefits and pensions, and privatize some state government operations.<\/a> Right wing think tanks like the\u00a0Manhattan Institute,<\/a> also push the idea of the “spoiled” public sector worker. Chen cites recent studies, which debunk the charge that government workers make too much money.<\/p>\n An analysis of New England public employees<\/a> by the Center for Economic Policy and Research<\/a> and Political Economy Research Institute<\/a> helps dispel the myth of the \u201cspoiled\u201d government worker. Researchers found that New England’s state and local workers are actually comparatively disadvantaged.\u00a0 After taking into account variables like age and education level, “state and local workers actually earn less, on average, than their private-sector counterparts.”<\/p>\n While it’s true that the public workers in the study have higher average incomes, this is primarily due to their higher ages and educational credentials. All in all:<\/p>\n While low-wage workers in New England receive a small wage premium in state and local jobs (about 5 percent for a typical low-wage worker), the typical middle-wage worker earns about 3 percent less in state and local work, and the typical high-wage worker makes about 13 percent less than a similar private-sector worker.<\/p>\n The government workers do tend to have better benefits, like sick leave and health insurance. But the researchers explained, \u201cBenefits offered by state and local governments are roughly as generous as those offered by large firms in the private sector” (presumably when they’re not busy laying people off in droves).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n