Government Employees Work Less than Private Sector Workers

Do government employees work less than private sector workers? Yeah, they do, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In fact, government workers are 38 percent more likely to play hooky — for “being sick” or for personal reasons — than private sector workers.

“When an employed wage and salary worker who usually works 35 hours per week is reported as having worked fewer than 35 hours during the survey reference week, a question is asked as to why he or she worked fewer than 35 hours,” the BLS survey reported.

“Workers whose reasons for missing work include illness or other personal reasons are counted as having had an absence. Those who are reported as having worked fewer than 35 hours because of vacation, holiday, labor-management dispute, or bad weather which results in an employer temporarily curtailing business activities are not counted as having an absence.”

Last year, four percent of public employees were absent from work in the general reference week compared to only 2.9 percent of non-government workers.

And on and on. It keeps going, but you get the point. Government workers have it pretty cushy, and there’s an obvious accountability factor.

And that is, accountability is less of a priority.