Are Public Sector Workers in Developing Countries Overpaid? Evidence from a New Global Data Set
This paper examines the public sector wage premium using nationally representative household surveys from 91 countries. The public sector generally pays a wage premium compared to all private sector salaried employees, but the size of the premium...
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/398361551117216050/Are-Public-Sector-Workers-in-Developing-Countries-Overpaid-Evidence-from-a-New-Global-Data-Set http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31328 |
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okr-10986-313282022-09-19T12:16:48Z Are Public Sector Workers in Developing Countries Overpaid? Evidence from a New Global Data Set Gindling, T. H. Hasnain, Zahid Newhouse, David Shi, Rong WAGES LABOR MARKET PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYMENT LOW-SKILLED WORKER EARNINGS DISTRIBUTION WAGE PREMIUM GENDER This paper examines the public sector wage premium using nationally representative household surveys from 91 countries. The public sector generally pays a wage premium compared to all private sector salaried employees, but the size of the premium is sensitive to the choice of the private sector comparator and varies considerably by worker characteristics. For most countries, the average premium disappears when the public sector is compared to only formal sector private employees, especially when controlling for occupation. The public sector wage premium is higher for women and low-skilled workers. In contrast, high-skilled public sector employees are most often paid the same as their private sector counterparts or may even pay a penalty for working in the public sector. Consistent with this, the public sector premium is greater for employees with less education, those working in lower paid occupations, and those whose earnings fall in the lower part of the conditional earnings distribution. Across countries, the wage premium is only weakly associated with countries’ level of development. These findings nuance the existing consensus that public sector workers tend to enjoy a significant wage premium over their private sector counterparts, and that this premium is especially large in low-income countries. 2019-02-26T16:23:30Z 2019-02-26T16:23:30Z 2019-02 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/398361551117216050/Are-Public-Sector-Workers-in-Developing-Countries-Overpaid-Evidence-from-a-New-Global-Data-Set http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31328 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8754 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper |
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Digital Repository |
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Foreign Institution |
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Digital Repositories |
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World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
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World Bank |
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English |
| topic |
WAGES LABOR MARKET PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYMENT LOW-SKILLED WORKER EARNINGS DISTRIBUTION WAGE PREMIUM GENDER |
| spellingShingle |
WAGES LABOR MARKET PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYMENT LOW-SKILLED WORKER EARNINGS DISTRIBUTION WAGE PREMIUM GENDER Gindling, T. H. Hasnain, Zahid Newhouse, David Shi, Rong Are Public Sector Workers in Developing Countries Overpaid? Evidence from a New Global Data Set |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8754 |
| description |
This paper examines the public sector
wage premium using nationally representative household
surveys from 91 countries. The public sector generally pays
a wage premium compared to all private sector salaried
employees, but the size of the premium is sensitive to the
choice of the private sector comparator and varies
considerably by worker characteristics. For most countries,
the average premium disappears when the public sector is
compared to only formal sector private employees, especially
when controlling for occupation. The public sector wage
premium is higher for women and low-skilled workers. In
contrast, high-skilled public sector employees are most
often paid the same as their private sector counterparts or
may even pay a penalty for working in the public sector.
Consistent with this, the public sector premium is greater
for employees with less education, those working in lower
paid occupations, and those whose earnings fall in the lower
part of the conditional earnings distribution. Across
countries, the wage premium is only weakly associated with
countries’ level of development. These findings nuance the
existing consensus that public sector workers tend to enjoy
a significant wage premium over their private sector
counterparts, and that this premium is especially large in
low-income countries. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Gindling, T. H. Hasnain, Zahid Newhouse, David Shi, Rong |
| author_facet |
Gindling, T. H. Hasnain, Zahid Newhouse, David Shi, Rong |
| author_sort |
Gindling, T. H. |
| title |
Are Public Sector Workers in Developing Countries Overpaid? Evidence from a New Global Data Set |
| title_short |
Are Public Sector Workers in Developing Countries Overpaid? Evidence from a New Global Data Set |
| title_full |
Are Public Sector Workers in Developing Countries Overpaid? Evidence from a New Global Data Set |
| title_fullStr |
Are Public Sector Workers in Developing Countries Overpaid? Evidence from a New Global Data Set |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Are Public Sector Workers in Developing Countries Overpaid? Evidence from a New Global Data Set |
| title_sort |
are public sector workers in developing countries overpaid? evidence from a new global data set |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2019 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/398361551117216050/Are-Public-Sector-Workers-in-Developing-Countries-Overpaid-Evidence-from-a-New-Global-Data-Set http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31328 |
| _version_ |
1764474074725089280 |