Who drives the public sector?

Public sector jobs are typically considered safe and stable. It is therefore not surprising that the majority of public sector employees in the world (77%) work full-time jobs. However, this still means that almost a quarter of public sector officials are self-employed, including as self-employed workers or dependent contractors. The proportion of public sector workers who are self-employed varies significantly by region and income group. For example, it ranges from as little as 3.6 percent in high-income countries to as much as 37.2 percent in lower-middle-income countries.

The public sector also appears to provide solid guarantees of formal jobs. In almost all countries with data, the rate of informality is higher in the private sector than in the public sector, with an unweighted average difference of 50 percentage points and a median difference of 54 percentage points. The difference increases with the level of national income. This means that in low-income countries where informality is more prevalent, the public sector’s influence in protecting workers from informality becomes stronger.

Meanwhile, there is a misconception that public officials usually work fewer hours than those employed in the private sector. The average weekly working hours of people employed in the public sector are higher in 47 out of 115 countries. However, the proportion of people working excessive hours, defined as 49 or more hours per week, was lower in the public sector than in the private sector in most countries (107 out of 124).

In terms of earnings, in 69 of 81 countries, public sector workers command a significant premium, with average hourly earnings in the public sector being 36 percent higher than in the private sector. While this may be attributable to the higher levels of education and skills of public sector workers in many countries, it applies to every major occupational group.

Moreover, the gender pay gap is much less significant in the public sector. The median pay gap in the private sector is 12 percent compared to a median of close to 0 in the public sector, highlighting the role of the public sector in promoting gender parity. The smaller gender pay gap in the public sector is linked to the fact that the public sector pay premium is higher for women than for men in 66 of the 81 countries for which data are available.