Posted on 08/24/2009 5:09:44 PM PDT by Timeout
Figure 1 looks at average wages. In 2008, the average wage for 1.9 million federal civilian workers was $79,197, which compared to an average $49,935 for the nation’s 108 million private sector workers (measured in full-time equivalents). The figure shows that the federal pay advantage (the gap between the lines) is steadily increasing.
Oh, and you'll be delighted to know....IT GETS WORSE! (See 1st post below)
(Excerpt) Read more at cato-at-liberty.org ...
Figure 2 shows that the federal advantage is even more pronounced when worker benefits are included. In 2008, federal worker compensation averaged a remarkable $119,982, which was more than double the private sector average of $59,909.
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This is revolting. And the article admits that it's even WORSE if you include state and local governments.
He proposes a wage freeze for several years until private sector averages catch up. Not good enough. It's time for cuts. See my tagline...it's been there for over a year.
plus I think you get bonuses for being LGBT.
Yet why is it that servicemen and women get paid below poverty level?
Because they’re not in the union?
Bush’s fault ...
Beck is right, both parties have sold out America.
Crap, now I po’d that I retired in 2005....I never saw this kind of pay.....
Kind of explains why the Private sector people cannot or have difficulty saving for retirement.
Well I guess I should be happy just knowing I can watch someone retire in comfort at a much younger age knowing that my Tax dollar has done some good.
Um, these numbers are badly skewed. The civilian nongovernment employee numbers include tens of millions of people who are working at McDonald’s, working in slaughterhouses, doing a lot of minimum-wage jobs. The federal workforce is smaller and contains more highly-trained people, including a higher percentage with advanced degrees.
If you compare people doing identical jobs in identical locales, you will find that the nongovernment employee makes more money. Historically federal employees trade higher wages for more job security.
When I was married to a federal employee we had a heck of a time luring potential hires away from the private sector because their wives objected—they were going to have less money and would have to live in DC, which is one of the most expensive places in the US. They could make out much better by taking a job in the private sector.
And rather than actually work, they just pass the buck.
There are lots of menial jobs in government. Someone cooks in their “member only” restaurants and cafeterias. Someone cleans the tables and washes the dishes.
Then there are the elevator operators in the capitol. And so on.
And I guarantee you every single one of them makes more than their counterparts “at McDonald’s”.
I agree, both of my bosses are GS level employees for the DOD and they have years and years of experiance and training. Both are retired Marines and both work 85+ hour work weeks. I’m personnaly an E-6 with 8 years active duty and plan to retire from the military after 20 and apply for a GS position. BTW, I have two AS degrees and one BS. 12 years from now I would imagine I’ll have at least one Masters degree. Note: I can’t speak for any other department other than the DOD though.
I don’t think you’ll find anyone here begrudging military or former military personnel. We know they tend to be highly trained and educated...and we love them! It’s the pointy headed bureaucrats at EPA and Energy and Education and....well, you get my drift.
There’s no getting around that extraordinary comparative average total compensation, including benefits.
1.9 million, mostly professional Federal jobs vs. 108 million “private sector” (everyone else from CEO to McD’s cashier)? Apples and oranges. If you’re going to let this make you mad—gov’t contractors make even more.
Are you talking about such a thing in, perhaps, the Department of Energy (which has a nice enough cafeteria, but I don't recall "members only" there. Or, maybe USPS Headquarters ~ which has a lunchroom ~ people eat at fast food restaurants throughout L'Enfant Plaza.
You lost me completely.
Yes, there are some low-level employees in federal service. And doubtless some of them are incompetent and overpaid. But you have to think about how statistics are formulated. If there are, let’s say, ten million nongovernment employees earning $6.25 an hour and 200,000 federal employees doing something similar but earning $9 an hour, the ten million drag the entire nongovernment mean down. But a guy who has a master’s degree in a hard-science field is going to make a great deal more in the private sector than in public service. This is why federal employees have to be bribed to stay in federal service with offers of benefits and security that the private sector doesn’t offer.
Look, I know it’s fun to hate federal employees. But the fact is that most of the management types work far more than forty hours a week and don’t make as much money as they could elsewhere, even though they’re living in the second-most expensive city in the US.
Yes, these numbers are fishy. The government for years under the Bush administration took a policy of contracting out a number of the federal jobs. During those times government workers didn't know if they were going to keep their jobs or be laid off. In many cases today, federal workers are understaff and are nothing more than managers who oversee contractors. Heck, they even contract out security (does anyone remember Blackwater?). You can't expect low level employees to manage multi-billion contracts. The size of government isn't measured by the number of feds but by the number of contractors. And, as you've stated, many of these contractors who the feds are overseeing make much more then their government counterparts. If you want to reduce the size of government, then you will have to reduce private contractors.
As a person who has been on both sides of the issue, federal workers simply do not make as much in salary as their counterpart civilian sector. That being said, where they do make it up is in the benefits and entitlements (e.g. vacation, retirement, job security, health care, etc.). If these were taken away, you would not be able to attract talent.
Like everything else, there are trade offs. When everything was booming, many feds looked at the private sector counterparts who were making money hands over fist. In bad times feds are more secure. The grass is always greener on the other side.
The information left out of this study is that it is usually very hard to get a government job; the gov’t usually requires more education and experience, and many jobs have very extensive background checks so that might explain the salary difference.
I do think the government has too many employees and needs to make a major cut in departments and eliminate many government jobs. Before I would recommend pay cuts or salary freezes I would do a real comparison between government workers and similiar civilian workers- taking into account the requirements to be hired to begin with.
I work for the government and one thing that strikes me odd is they often have very strict hiring requirements for simple jobs that could easily be done by people that don’t have such an impressive resume and costs could be saved by hiring lower skilled workers.
Well I guess I should be happy just knowing I can watch someone retire in comfort at a much younger age knowing that my Tax dollar has done some good.
EXACTLY......it makes my blood boil so badly I just cannot think about it....but THAT is where the divide is in america - between the private sector and federal, state, and even local government workers.
THAT is what is wrong with our country and there are so many in the government workforce - THAT is why they keep winning elections over and over and over again.
The stupid Federal workers need to figure out that eventually THEY will be affected because as the private sector keeps shrinking, the tax dollars keep shrinking, and eventually their little red wagons will be in the dust as well.
IN the mean time - the injustice of this GAP - especially the retirement gap - needs to unite all in the private sector to rise up AGAINST the public sector - to revolt!!!
My cousin was a policeman in New York. He made about $40,000 a year. When he was ready to retire, he worked so much overtime he earned over $110,000 his final year. He retired with a pension of $89,000 per year. This would never happen in the private sector.
ROFLOL, yes we all agree Lewinsky was well trained and very well paid. But no one could really put their finger on what she did.
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