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Even if they fail to elect “their” candidates, public-sector unions have a relatively easy time negotiating with politicians. Private-sector bosses are accustomed to playing hardball with unions because they know they can go bankrupt if they don’t. Politicians have no such discipline: they can always raise taxes or borrow from future generations. Those who have challenged the unions have often regretted it. California’s former governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, tried to fight the unions in the court of public opinion, only to be outgunned. Others have attempted a more stopgap approach, only to get the blame when services are disrupted.
Economists still debate exactly what impact public-sector unions have on pay. Evidence from the American Bureau of Labour Statistics support the conservative argument that they have used their power to extract a wage premium: public-sector workers earn, on average, a third more than their private-sector counterparts. Left-leaning economists reply that public-sector workers are, on average, better educated. Whatever the merits of this argument, three things seem clear. Unions have suppressed wage differentials in the public sector. They have extracted excellent benefits for their members. And they have protected underperforming workers from being sacked.
Wage differentials are relatively small in the public sector. Lower-level workers, such as secretaries, are usually better paid than their private-sector equivalents, whereas higher-level workers are worse paid. This not only makes it difficult to attract high-flyers into the public sector, but also makes it hard to raise standards by, for instance, putting the best head teachers in charge of groups of schools.

A. 어휘
candidates 候補(후보). public-sector unions 公共(공공)분야 노조.
relatively 상대적으로. are accustomed to ...에 익숙한.
play hardball 엄한 조치를 취하다, 적극적인 태도를 취하다.
go bankrupt 파산하다. discipline 훈련, 訓戒(훈계). governor 주지사.
outgun 火力(화력)이 우세하다. stopgap 彌縫策(미봉책), 구멍 메우기.
disrupt 부수다, 교통, 통신, 수도 등을 일시 불통케 하다. 중단시키다.
Bureau of Labour Statistics 노동통계국. conservative 보수적인.
extract 뽑아내다, 추출하다. counterparts 副本(부본), 寫本(사본), 상대방.
Left-leaning economists 左傾(좌경) 경제전문가. suppress 억압하다, 금지하다.
differentials 차별, 격차, 微分(미분). underperforming 업무수행이 不振(부진)한.
sack 해임하다. Wage differentials 임금격차. secretaries 비서.
equivalents 등가물, 동등한 사람. high-flyers 才士(재사), 포부가 큰 사람, 야심가.
head teachers 교장.