Public sector employees earn a gross salary of up to 6.6% less than their private sector equivalents.  But if you include smaller companies, that pay disadvantage all but disappears.  Then of course there are the huge perks enjoyed by civil servants such as very generous pensions and the fact that they are virtually unfireable. So do public sector workers earn more or less than those working for private companies on the whole.   

Dr Emma Howard from TU Dublin discussed this further with Joe.