Public Servants: Overpaid and Underworked?

Introduction

Public servants overpaid and under worked, is this statement fact or fiction? Or could this statement merely represent a deeper underlying resentment to the appearance of the Canadian government's spending gone awry? These are questions that plague today's public service commission, and the millions of people who are employed with the private sector. In an attempt to answer these questions, an analysis has been drawn to show comparisons between the private and public sector. When the statement 'public servants are overpaid and under worked' is spoken it is typically in comparison to the private sector, therefore it is advantageous to draw this comparison in the analysis. The analysis must compare only which is comparable: labour force division of public and private service, salary scales, perceived benefits, revenues versus expenses, rights, and obligations of employees, and public opinion. This analysis will accomplish providing evidence to draw a logical conclusion to the question posed, it however does not offer a consensus of all Canadians, it is merely one perspective of how to answer the question are public servants overpaid and under worked.

Who Are Public Servants

When surveyed (Appendix A), 74 percent of the 50 non-public servants were able to state that public servants are those that are compensated by some form of the Canadian government, whether it be federal, provincial or municipal. However, only 20 percent could readily identify what job functions public servants held. This begs the question, when the question under review is spoken, to whom is the statement directed? To analyse the question posed, a clear definition of what constitutes a public servant must be reached. Thus, when conducting the survey a definition with a variety of examples of what constitutes a public servant were given in order to complete the survey past the first question. Included in the definition and examples were: public servants are those persons paid by some level of the Canadian government, these persons include employees for organizations such as the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Transportation, Ministry of Finance, Canada Revenue Agency, Members of Parliament, the Prime Minister, Police, Firefighters, Social Workers (Children's Aid Society, Legal Aid, etc), Human Resources Development of Canada, policy and legislation writers, and many more. This definition and the examples given will provide a foundation of to who is being addressed in the question posed.

It appears that the public service employs more than just 'bureaucrats' attending to their own needs, unfortunately by some people the public service is seen as simply that, greedy bureaucrats. This is a definite shift from the inception of the public service. According to Donald Savoie in Breaking the Bargain, public servants in the earliest inception help positions that were respected by the public and their peers. Public servants were proud to hold their positions for they believed they were accomplishing something great for the people, the government, and themselves. Times have changed, population has increased dramatically since inception, the pride that was once there is not as widespread as before, and unto late through fiscal pressures there has been downsizing and privatization, and with that a loss in perceived and actual job security. There was a time when a career with the public service was just that, a career. Granted, through contracts and unions, job security in the public service is still greater than that in the private sector. This could be a cause for some of the dismay towards public servants, according to those surveyed, public servants are seen as having comfortable jobs for the rest of their lives. However, according to J.E. Hodgetts, "The Canadian Public Sector" the hierarchical nature of the public service is hindering recruitment and more of the educated young work force are preferring to gain employment in the private sector where there are more opportunities for advancement and better rewards.

Labour Force

Whenever conducting a statistical sample it is advantageous to select a sample that is representative of the population. Canada as of July 1, 2006 had a population of 32,623,490 people, of that 12,686,952 reside in Ontario, which is approximately 39 percent of the population. Therefore, when drawing comparisons they will be limited to Ontario statistics due to Ontario being a suitable representative of the Canadian population.

As of October 2005 3,142,000 of the 13,718,000 employed (excludes self-employed) in Ontario are employed by the public sector, thus approximately 23 percent of Ontario's