Once again the Dispatch, in a May 1 editorial, calls for Ohio’s public employees to “take part in the sacrifices required to set the state’s finances right,” claiming that “Ohioans in private-sector jobs are already sacrificing, and will sacrifice more…”
Haven’t state employees already sacrificed by being hit with ten unpaid furlough days per year? Don’t the proposed pension revisions which reduce the benefits that have been promised, and in some cases require contribution increases, entail sacrifices? Haven’t thousands of public employees been laid off? Aren’t many more likely to lose their jobs as funds for local government operations are slashed? Don’t public employees and their families also suffer at least as much as private sector employees when “government services across the spectrum…bear cuts to help balance the budget?”
The Dispatch frequently mentions the “excessive pay and benefits” of public employees and the sacrifices of private-sector employees without ever providing specifics. I realize that many folks in the private sector have lost their jobs – but so have many public employees. Would it be too much to ask that the Dispatch provide some evidence that pay and benefits in the private sector have really been affected more adversely than those in the public sector, or that public employees pay and benefits are really “excessive?” Have pay rates at Nationwide Insurance or Chase Bank been frozen for years? Are Limited Brands employees paying a higher share of their health insurance premiums? Have Dispatch Broadcasting Group employees been forced to take unpaid furlough days? In short, exactly how have private-sector employees sacrificed more than public employees?
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