Government Jobs Not So Cushy

When you hear the words “government job,” you probably think of big paychecks, or extreme job security. However, new studies have revealed that some state and local government workers actually earn less than their private sector counterparts.

As this article from CNN Money.com explains, government workers earn between 11% and 12% less than workers in private companies, according to a joint study from the Center for State and Local Government Excellence and National Institute on Retirement Security.

The report, which analyzed 20 years of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, also found that the pay gap has generally widened over the last two decades, as private compensation moved higher while earnings for state and local workers fell.

"The big divergence began to occur in the late 1990s," said John S. Heywood, a professor in the economics department at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and co-author of the report. "It's an issue."

Researchers say the make-up of public workers could be a primary driver for the gap. According to the study, because state and local employees tend to be older, they're less likely to leave their positions, which could keep salaries stagnant.

City to Pay for Informing on Tax Cheats

According to a new article from NBC Chicago, a few cities in the Chicago metropolitan area are going to begin offering financial rewards for citizens who provide information on tax cheats. Although the IRS has been running a whistleblower program for years, it is a new development for local governments. Check out the article explaining the new tax protocol below.

Chicago and Cook County residents aren’t the only ones about to get shocking tax news; the city is debuting a “tax whistle-blower” plan that could turn neighbor against neighbor in Chicago’s business community.

The folks at city hall will pay cash bounties to informants who turn in business tax cheats around the city. The reward would amount to some sort of percentage of the tax money that the city recovers.

"It's just another way of bringing people into compliance," Revenue Department spokesman Ed Walsh told the Sun-Times.