CHART: Without IDs, story unclear

The Press Benefit Comparison Chart in the April 30 edition, comparing Public Employees and Private Business Employees, is an underhanded way of making an argument that public employees are over benefited. There is no way of knowing if the comparisons are valid because the business sector employees are unknown.

We don't know the size of the businesses, their location or what type of business they are doing. The education and experience of the employees is not listed. For all we know, the businesses listed in the survey could have five employees or 50. The education of these anonymous employees could be from less than high school to college graduates.

Most people realize that total employee compensation is based on wages and benefits. How much it costs to get an employee depends on the job description, education and experience and other specific requirements. It might cost more to get a private or public sector employee for a job that is dangerous and requires special knowledge. A miner who sinks shafts or being a firefighter are examples of these jobs. I don't believe they are comparable however, because they both have special job requirements and a firefighter could not seamlessly become a miner and a miner would have the same difficulty being a firefighter. Compensation packages would undoubtedly reflect these differences because one benefit item might be more important to a firefighter and another benefit might be more important to the miner.

The Press has taken the subject of comparing employees in the same type of job and then expanded it to include different types of jobs. To make the discussion even more confusing, The Press used anonymous private sector employees in the Comparison Chart. A fair person reading the chart cannot make up their own mind if the comparisons are valid because so much is unknown about the private sector employees. The Press should identify the private sector employees or they should disavow the work that was done on the Comparison Chart.

WILLIAM WOLFE

Coeur d'Alene

Editor's note: The chart included benefits details from six local businesses ranging in employee size from about 20 to more than 1,000. They were chosen because they represent an excellent cross-section of private employment in Kootenai County. Not all wanted their benefits shared with the public because of competitive concerns, so The Press opted not to identify them.