The research in this paper investigates whether New Jersey public employees are overpaid at the expense of New Jersey taxpayers. This research is timely. The governor and the editorial board of the New Jersey Star-Ledger, the state’s largest newspaper, claim that public workers earn substantially higher salaries than average workers in the private sector, and the gap in benefits is even wider. Consequently, they are promoting public employee pay freezes, benefits reductions, and major revisions to the rules of collective bargaining as the antidote to the overpayment blight. continue reading