Parity and disparity in two work sectors

WHY is the public sector ‘benchmarked’ against the private sector?

While we are all at the mercy of global economics to one degree or another, the private sector in particular is widely affected by factors such as, for example, the trend to move manufacturing businesses to low-wage economies.

On the positive side, private sector workers can sometimes benefit from stock and share options (though why this gives the right to some multinationals operating here to ban unions is another matter).