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An executive compensation expert told Postmedia the benefits weren’t outrageous, when compared to offerings made to top executives in the private sector.

The payout, however, is still a costly pill for taxpayers to swallow.

Keeping public sector salaries in line with remuneration for comparable private sector jobs is problematic in a province like Alberta, where energy companies handsomely rewarded employees for years. A University of Calgary School of Public Policy showed at the start of the decade that the Alberta government spent more on wages per employee than any other provincial jurisdiction did.

It raises a crucial question: Does it make economic sense for public sector employees to be paid at rates similar to those in the private sector?

Union and labour groups, over the years, have highlighted studies that refute the existence of significant wage benefits for public sector workers. The Alberta Federation of Labour has in the past cited work done by the University of Toronto that indicates wage gaps between the public and private sector are “statistically indistinguishable.”

However, a 2017 report from the Fraser Institute found that Alberta government employees earned 7.9-per-cent more than private sector counterparts.

Other benefits were also found, according to the report based on 2015 data. For example, almost 73 per cent of government workers were covered by a registered pension plan, while the comparative figure in the private sector was 24 per cent.

The report also showed that private sector employees worked 1.1 years longer before retiring and were more likely to lose their jobs.

The real rub occurs when the economy dips.

In the private sector, economic downturns often lead to layoffs. In the public sector, that type of budgetary correction is much rarer.

In the end, it’s the taxpayer who shoulders the salary expense for everyone from an entry-level provincial employee to a school board superintendent. Not surprisingly, many hope these cases of sticker shock become a thing of the past.