BURNABY – If it’s mid-January it must be time for another so-called “study” from the right-wing Fraser Institute urging the BC Liberals to slash pay and benefits for public sector workers and celebrating the low-wage, low-benefit economy that’s emerging after 16 years of BC Liberal mismanagement.
The “study” is essentially a copy-and-paste of previous studies, flawed methodology included.
Rather than construct yet another debunking, here’s the news release CUPE BC issued at this time of year two years ago.
January 19, 2015
Fraser Institute gets it wrong—again
BURNABY—The release today of the Fraser Institute’s latest attack on wages and benefits for working people shows how out of touch with economic reality the right-wing organization is, says CUPE BC.
“This is essentially the same document the Fraser Institute peddled before the provincial budget last year,” said CUPE BC Secretary-Treasurer (now President) Paul Faoro. “It’s the same old tired, regressive anti-worker rhetoric we hear from right-wing think tanks like the Fraser Institute, the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
“No serious economist would give this ‘study’ any credence at all, but I’m concerned that the Christy Clark Liberals in Victoria will use this as rationale to bring in legislation that will slash wages and benefits for public sector workers under the guise of ‘equalizing’ them with the private sector,” said Faoro. “The reality is, we should all be working to ensure that all working people earn a living wage and can retire in dignity. The Fraser Institute is opposed to that, and this report is yet another example of its ‘greed is good’ vision.”
The Fraser Institute study says that public sector workers earn a “premium” compared to their private sector counterparts, but provides no examples. Other studies of the difference in compensation have shown that the majority of the so-called “premium” is due to women earning better pay in the public sector for comparable work in the private sector.
Funded in part by the right-wing American Koch Brothers, who also helped found and fund the U.S. Tea Party, the Fraser Institute has long advocated for lower wages and reduced benefits for working people.
“The Fraser Institute’s vision for BC’s economy is bizarre,” said Faoro. “They want women and aboriginal people in particular, but all workers as well, to earn less, work more, and retire in poverty. That’s not even good for the super-wealthy the Fraser Institute represents, but their ideology blinds them to reality.”
