Public Sector Unions and the Costs of Government

Abstract

As recent political battles in Wisconsin, Ohio, and a number of other states attest, public sector unions are among the most active interest groups in American politics. They are also different from other interest groups in two key respects: they engage in collective bargaining, and are thus in a position to shape the organization of government in ways that other groups are not, and their members are the government's own employees-its bureaucrats-who not only influence government from the inside through their official roles, but also from the outside through their unions. For all of these reasons, public sector unions are eminently worthy of scholarly attention, and yet political scientists have almost never studied them. This paper is an attempt to make some headway. Our focus is on how unions and collective bargaining in the public sector affect the costs of government. We present three separate studies, using different datasets from different historical periods, and we examine a range of cost-related outcomes: wages and salaries, health benefits, employment levels, and pension liabilities. In all three studies, our findings show that strong unions and collective bargaining do tend to increase the costs of government, and the impacts are both substantively and statistically significant. In presenting these findings, we hope to encourage other scholars to view public sector unions as important subjects of analysis.

The Influence of Executive Selection Factors on the Performance of Public Sector Organizations in Korea

“…As consumerdriven organizational performance relies heavily on environmental constraints and opportunities, it is a crucial task of management to deal with shocks and maintain stable resources (Meier et al, 2007;O'Toole & Meier, 1999). The statistically negative effect of public sector unions on the PEI suggests that the role of public sector unions in collective bargaining should be further examined in the study of public service performance (Anzia & Moe, 2012;Moe, 2009;Nicholson-crotty et al, 2012). Examination of the relationship between public sector unions and performance is still in its infancy in the public management literature.…”

“…In a study on city governments, Anzia and Moe (2012) argue that public sector unions are related to higher costs of government, such as wages and salaries, health benefits, employment levels, and pension liabilities.…”

Unions, Parties, and the Politics of State Government Legacy Cost

“…Unions channel the political preferences of governments' own employees through lobbying, electioneering, and voting. Insofar as they receive material benefits directly from current policy arrangements, unions are deeply invested in policy outcomes (Moe, 2015). Their members live in every state legislative district in the nation, which means that they are salient constituents for all elected officials.…”

Comparing Public-Versus-Private Sector Pay and Benefits

“…Over the years, benefits have increasingly become a significant and growing portion of the total compensation for public employees. Public employees have benefits that are more expensive and valuable than their counterparts in the private sector (Anzia & Moe, 2012;Brady, 2007: Fleet, 2007. More generous benefits have assisted in offsetting the compensation limitations for many public workers (Coggburn & Kearney, 2010).…”