In the face of significant reductions in federal spending and slowing economic growth, many state and local governments may look to cut their own spending in the coming months. Too often, state and local cutbacks mean reducing standards for government workers, who already earn wages significantly below those of their private sector counterparts. This issue brief highlights research demonstrating that supporting strong standards provides direct benefits to the public.
State and local governments have long adopted wage and benefits standards, job training programs, paid leave requirements, and union protections for direct government workers as well as workers whose jobs are funded by government spending. Studies consistently find that these standards help raise wages, reduce racial wealth gaps, and shrink the wage gap between public and private sector workers. At the same time, job quality standards can create a more effective and efficient government, benefiting the public by boosting worker productivity and improving public outcomes, retaining highly qualified workers, increasing government revenues, and attracting the next generation of public servants.
The above excerpt was originally published in Center for American Progress.
Click here to read the full report.