A study conducted last year by a national non-partisan, non-profit public policy organization found that overall employees of the state of Illinois are paid on average 27 percent more than those doing similar jobs in the private sector.
Illinois state employees made nearly $4,000 more in wages and $13,000 more in benefits than their private-sector peers, according to the study conducted by State Budget Solution.
More than half of Illinois' state workers will retire before age 60 with guaranteed state pensions that average more than $42,000 and compound at 3 percent annually
Dan Proft, a talk radio personality and senior fellow at the Illinois Policy Institute, recently took the state to task over the disparity between public and private-sector pay.
With the imbalance of pay, benefits and pensions between public sector and private sector workers building on top of the state’s already excessive financial strain, Proft said it's time for Gov. Bruce Rauner to right a wrong and show his true mettle.
"This is Rauner’s moment of truth," Proft said in a commentary on the study's findings posted on Upstream Ideas' website. "Even more important than a fiscal-year budget is sending the unmistakable message ... that the balance of the nearly 13 million residents of Illinois not in their ranks do not exist as spare parts for the machine that spits out compensation packages 27 percent higher than their own."
Alerts Sign-up