Public sector workers in Atlantic Canada were paid more and received better benefits than those in the private sector.

Those are the findings of a study released today by the Fraser Institute.

Policy Analyst with the Fraser Institute, Alex Whalen says they examined both wages and non-wage benefits and found a big gap in Newfoundland and Labrador. They found a 40.7 per cent wage gap between public and private sector workers based on the raw data, but a gap remains even when they take other statistical differences into account.

They understand that the workforce in each sector have different characteristics, but even taking into account gender, age, tender and job, an 11 per cent pay gap remains.

That is also true of benefits according to Whalen.

Public sector workers in this province are able to retire 4.2 years sooner than their counterparts in the private sector.