In the recent row about public workers' pension and its affordability by the government, a lot of effort is made by non-public worker to make a comparison between their pension or the lack thereof and public workers' pension in the economically challenging time. The point often missed is that the comparison should be made in a fairer manner when private sector workers, on average, take home higher pay for a similar level of job in seniority term when times are better. This of course does not include bonuses, benefits and other perks like company car, private health care, private dental car, paid expenses, interest-free loans.
The advantages of a job in the public sector are job security and flexibility. Many people go into public sector career for this reason, fully aware that there will not be company cars, company parties, private health care, etc but they want to be able to rely on modest but less risky income at the end of their work life. This suits many people with family and those who do not wish to live life in the fast lane.
I have worked in both sectors and appreciate the drawbacks in each. In the economic boom times, private sector workers' salary is often 2-3 times more than public sector workers on the same career level. The financial company I worked for awarded employees bonuses worth 0.5 to 2 times their annual salary. Public sector workers might get a small financial reward based on performance but it will never be anything of this level.
Now that the bad time comes around, the private sector takes some of the stick and the argument that we should be in it together is interpreted as the public sector should suffer too but it creates unfairness because it never got to enjoy the perks that private sector was privileged to during the good times.
