Low Opinion of Government Work Ethic

If you were expecting the news about public attitudes toward government employees would get better any time soon, then prepare to be disappointed.

A Rasmussen poll released this week shows that 70 percent of Americans think private sector employees work harder than their counterparts in government. Just 7 percent of respondents think public sector employees are harder workers.

The polling firm's report notes that "those numbers have changed little in surveys dating back to December 2009." I bet they weren't that different before then, either. Rightly or wrongly, I'd guess a substantial majority of Americans have long thought that private sector employees tend to work harder than those in government. One reason, of course, is that they tend to be rewarded for such efforts to a greater extent than those in the public sector -- through overtime pay, bonuses and performance-based salary increases.

(Hat tip: Federal Times)