Premium
Public Wage Differentials and the Public Administration “Industry”
Author(s) -
BELMAN DALE,
HEYWOOD JOHN S.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
industrial relations: a journal of economy and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.61
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1468-232X
pISSN - 0019-8676
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-232x.1988.tb01014.x
Subject(s) - wage , public sector , differential (mechanical device) , homogeneous , government (linguistics) , private sector , labour economics , compensation (psychology) , business , demographic economics , economics , economic growth , economy , linguistics , philosophy , psychoanalysis , engineering , aerospace engineering , physics , thermodynamics , psychology
The public sector consists of two broad sub samples, administrators and no administrators. The two groups have very different occupational compositions and contrasting patterns of compensation. Inconsistent treatment of these sub samples has led to past government differentials, which are not comparable. While administrators remain overpaid relative to their private sector counterparts, no administrators are underpaid relative to their counterparts. Moreover, public wage differentials way substantially in sign and magnitude from industry to industry. Such results demonstrate that no simple, homogeneous government differential exists.