The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute has published a fact-check on the anti-public employee rhetoric that's been dominating state budget discussions, including the budget talks here in Washington State .

EPI reports:

Keefe’s 2010 paper, Debunking the Myth of the Overcompensated Public Employee, is highly relevant today as public workers are increasingly blamed for the budget shortfalls of so many state and local governments. A recent series of New York Times stories have focused on this trend, noting that more and more political leaders are demanding concessions from their public workforces, and attempting to pass legislation that would weaken the labor unions that represent much of the public workforce.

Keefe found that private sector workers earned average annual wages of $55,132, $6,061 greater than the $49,072 earned by public sector workers. When looking at total compensation including employer-provided benefits, this gap narrowed but the private sector workers still earned $2,001 more per year than public sector workers ($71,109 in total compensation, versus $69,108).