Public, Private Workers’ Wages to Be Compared : Government: Supervisors are expected to approve a study to determine whether county employees are overpaid.

Underworked and overpaid. That’s long been the rap on public employees.

Now Orange County intends to find out how its more than 15,000 workers shape up against the private sector. In upcoming weeks, the Board of Supervisors is expected to launch a wage-and-benefits analysis to determine whether workers are paid too much.

That’s welcome news to government critics who for months have demanded such a study as the bankrupt county looks for ways to cut costs and raise needed cash to help solve the fiscal crisis.

“We’re happy to hear it because this is what we’ve been wanting for some time now,” said Bruce Whitaker, spokesman for the Committees of Correspondence, a vocal anti-tax organization. “Government is a monopoly and doesn’t have competition to keep it honest.”

The county’s immediate concern is guiding a bankruptcy recovery plan through the Legislature. But as soon as the plan is in place, Supervisor Marian Bergeson said, she wants to focus on restructuring government and hopes to join colleague Roger R. Stanton in formally requesting the pay and benefits study.

“Money has already been set aside in the [1995-1996] budget for it,” Bergeson said. “We didn’t want to get to a point where we were ready to do it and say, ‘We don’t have the money.’ ”

It’s a politically volatile issue because, depending on the study’s outcome, there could be pressure to cut employee wages.

Nick Berardino, director of employee relations of the Orange County Employees Assn., which represents more than 11,000 county employees, said he believes an accurate study will prove that workers don’t receive bloated paychecks.

“Public employees are not paid more than their private sector counterparts,” said Berardino, who noted the association often studies the issue to prepare for labor negotiations.

In most cases, the association’s studies find the public and private sector on par, but when there is a disparity, it is usually in favor of private workers, Berardino said.

“In fact, in many cases you will find public employees’ pay trailing behind the private sector,” he said.

That is contested in a recent study published by American Legislative Exchange Council, which describes itself as a bipartisan association for state legislators.

The council’s recent study concludes that pay increases for public employees have grown so dramatically since 1980 compared to private employees that the state of California could have saved $6 billion in 1991 alone if there had been parity.

The council study relied on U.S. Census and federal labor data, said Noel Card, public affairs director for the Washington-based group.

“What the data proves is the rate of increase for public employees has been greater than the rate for the private sector,” Card said.

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How the study of Orange County employees is conducted will be a key issue, as some critics say it is difficult to compare jobs, job responsibilities, pay and benefits.

One example is law enforcement, which does not have an easily comparable counterpart in the private sector.

Leading proponents of the study, such as Whitaker and former Orange County Rep. William E. Dannemeyer, concede that point when it comes to law enforcement. But they say they are more interested in the vast majority of public employees, from clerks to painters to county psychiatrists.

“This is an issue that has received little if any interest from the establishment types at the county, who have been reluctant to address this,” Dannemeyer said. “I think what it will show will embarrass the county, and they’ve been avoiding that.”

Others say law enforcement costs should be compared to costs in other so-called right-to-work states, where union membership is not mandatory.

And that underscores the belief by some that union membership plays a role in the cost of public employees.

“Basically, public employees are paid more. Whether they’re overpaid, that’s not a judgment we make,” said David Kendrick, program director for the National Institute for Labor Relations Research in Springfield, Va., which describes itself as a group analyzing pay inequities caused by requiring workers to join unions.

Employee representatives disagree, however, and insist that wages between the public and private sector are basically equal.

Dannemeyer and others say employee pay should be slashed if a study shows it is too high. Berardino said union officials would be poised to fight that, especially if it means tampering with current labor contracts.

Berardino said his association represents assistants making as little as $19,000 a year, to psychiatrists making about $100,000. He said many professional county workers could make much more in the private sector.

The disagreement on both sides demonstrates the need for the study, Bergeson said.

“For that very reason, we need it,” Bergeson said. “I think the best solution is good information.”