Posted on 08/27/2009 6:57:21 AM PDT by Leisler
The Bureau of Economic Analysis has released its annual data on compensation levels by industry (Tables 6.2D, 6.3D, and 6.6D here). The data show that the pay advantage enjoyed by federal civilian workers over private-sector workers continues to expand.
The George W. Bush years were very lucrative for federal workers. In 2000, the average compensation (wages and benefits) of federal workers was 66 percent higher than the average compensation in the U.S. private sector. The new data show that average federal compensation is now more than double the average in the private sector.
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
(Excerpt) Read more at cato-at-liberty.org ...
Our enemy is not Democrats.
It’s Washington in total, I’m afraid.
Both parties turning us into Serfs ping!
This is how both ELECTED political parties are turning us to Serfs. If you questioned this last year under Bush you were called a traitor (by the Hannity/Levin type conservatives) for not supporting national security. If you question it now you are called a racist for not supporting social justice.
Bingo!!!
This is how both ELECTED political parties are turning us to Serfs. If you questioned this last year under Bush you were called a traitor (by the Hannity/Levin type conservatives) for not supporting national security. If you question it now you are called a racist for not supporting social justice.
This enormous growth of government a few dynasties ago in China also brought the country to its economic knees as there were too many non producing government types sucking up all the production of the 'serfs' See also; USSR, Venezuela, Cuba,Zimbabwe.....and now coming to a country just south of Canada.
![](http://lh6.ggpht.com/_DFE3JnAqGKE/SpaVmFszjAI/AAAAAAAAApo/DW0lWPIe0vg/s720/americans%20on%20barge%20job.JPG")
The GOP is just eh WWF opponent, totally manufactured to the supposed Democrats. Really, just one big spending, big business, big union, citizen raping, wealth stealing at the IRS gunpoint from one group of Americans to other Americans. Welfare is just a vote buying cost of business.
The govt worker doesn’t have to compete with low cost imported workers, foreign sourcing or illegals. Something which Cato Institute supports. I don’t trust publications that are two faced.
Civilian lawyers, accountants, etc. also earn more.
Best I could tell digging through the data behind the graphs was that USPS workers (40% of the civilian work force in the federal government) were not included.
BTW, as a show of good faith, I'd like to see CATO institute cut their profesional staff pay to the "national average" ~ then we'll talk.
Well, assuming you are correct, that CATO Institute supports importation of low paid foreign serfs, that pretty well shreds their moral highground.
You’re not allowed to say that. SOP is to cling desperately to the belief that you can turn the tide by voting the right way.
As for Federal pay....Kids, take note. That’s where the solid careers are.
Unlike the GOP that, words aside, supports large government, high taxes, rent seeking big business/fiance ....and illegal immigration.
We have our choice of devils.
Normally, those would be good for our economy....except we do not live under normal conditions. I am a free trader, but I also recognize reality. We have been invaded by millions of largely poor, untrained people who have brought with them dangerous social and medical pathologies. They are bleeding our resources while being given preferential treatment by liberal politicians, including rights superior to actual citizens. As long as we continue to permit this insanity, they will not endeavor to learn our language or adopt our culture and values. Nor will American jobs prosper or wages rise.
Federal Pay: Response to the Critics
Posted by Chris Edwards
My post yesterday on federal worker pay generated a large and aggressive response from federal workers, both in my inbox and on websites such as Fedsmith.com. (See also Federal Times and Govexec). Here are four points raised in criticism:
First, people accuse me of producing distorted data somehow. Actually, it’s essentially just raw Bureau of Economic Analysis data, but the data is usually overlooked by the media because I don’t think the BEA puts out a press release on it. Anyway, the average wage data is from BEA Table 6.6D. The average compensation data is simply total compensation (Table 6.2D) divided by the number of workers (Table 6.5D).
Second, people argue that reporting overall averages for wages and compensation is somehow illegitimate. People email me comments like “my federal salary is only $50,000, yet you claim that federal workers make $79,000.” All I can say to folks like this is that there must be a federal worker out there making $108,000 who balances you off.
Third, people argue that a better analysis would be to compare similar jobs in the private and public sectors, rather than looking at overall averages. I agree that that would be very useful. Unfortunately, the BEA data is not broken down that way. At the same time, the BEA data provides the most comprehensive accounting for the value of employee benefits of any data source. Benefits are a very important part of federal compensation, and so that’s why I look to the BEA data.
Fourth, many people argue that the federal government has an elite workforce with many highly educated people. Certainly, that’s an important factor to consider. However, that is the reason why I focused on the pay trend over the last eight years. The federal worker compensation advantage rose from 66 percent in 2000 to 100 percent in 2008. Has the composition of the federal workforce really changed that much in just eight years to justify such a big relative gain? I doubt it.
A final consideration is to look at a “market test” of the adequacy of compensation in the public sector–the quit rate. The voluntary quit rate in the federal government is just one-third or less the quit rate in the private sector (Table 16 near the bottom here).
That is strongly suggestive of ”golden handcuffs” in federal employment. While many federal workers probably grumble about their jobs (as many private sector workers do), they know that the overall package of wages, benefits, and extreme job security (Table 18 here) is very hard to match in the competitive private market, and so they stay put.
The unions are sticking it to us too...especially the education/teachers unions.
My two sisters are teachers. Good to kids. Dumb as stumps economically. Vote Dem. Touchy feelly types
Those positions are no longer in the mix.
The whole thrust of the Algore "reinventing government" project was to eliminate jobs not requiring a college degree from government employment.
Although that program started under he Clinton Regime, it has been making its impact during the last 8 years of the Bush Administration as folks without college degrees retire.
Not sure why you think "quit rate" is relevant with professional level jobs anyway.
I doubt there are any good numbers on quit rates in private law firms.
Anyways, I know from experience that I double my pay, and more, when working as a private contractor on government projects. My last project, compensation was well over 1,000 percent higher. ( I liked that job ). Of course I paid too with being in an insane decision making/ low quality loop for months at a time, but I needed the paycheck.
Not much new under the sun. Mesopotamia, anyone?
Don't forget the Federal pension and health care, dude!
Government inflates while the private sector deflates.
Liberals, who love to use the term “unsustainable,” never apply it to statist economic models.
So, what’s the difference with haveing a federal employee mowing the lawn, or a private contractor working at required union rates mowing the lawn? If anything the dumping of gov labor into the civilian labor pool would lift up the civilian labor pool rates to close the gap between the two, right?
How much of higher cost, higher paying civilian contractors are actually wholly gov contractors?
Everybody I know loves to work for ‘private’ contracts fullfilling federal, state and local contracts as a union or non union worker.
Where GSA, et al, have eliminated government maintenance, then your 10 pointer is going to be unemployed.
Yes, it really has changed that much. Because George Bush god rid of the unskilled jobs and replaced them with contractors; as a result at my place of employment over 75% of our workforce now has a Masters level education (and yes, they are in science).
So, disabled riding lawn cutters are unable to ride lawn cutters depending on......what?
As if the majority of disabled are even employed by government.
What of the leg missing, arm missing, eye missing, spine degenerating employed civilians I meet and know? How are they able to walk, stand, lift, order, sell, call, manage, lead.
More construction workers, fishermen, miners, mill and lumbermen are killed, injured every year, way more and most find unsubsidised work, taxpaying, productive work, trades, professions.
Other than some appeal to emotions, I don’t get, or accept your point.
But, the contractors are scored in the civilian sector, even though they have to pay higher than normal civilian pay. So, they ‘lift up’ the civilian pay and benefits, making the gap look less than it would otherwise.
Both my two sisters, and a few cop friends all have ‘masters’. Thus making their type labor force look elite. Thus justifying their higher pay. They are junk masters and they are doing the same work they did before them.
Gaming the system/taxpayer. Featherbedding. Degreed ticket punching.
If you examine the applicaion for 10 point veterans preference you will notice there are “categories” with which you should become familiar http://jobs.faa.gov/forms/sf15.pdf
The point was that if you see someone mowing the lawn at a federal government installation he's going to be a contractor's employee or a federal government employee ~ and if a federal government employee he's probably a 10 pointer hired into a job where it is MANDATORY to hire 10 pointers with a demonstrated ability to do that job.
As you now see from reviewing the application, that could be a widow(er), mother(father), or other dependent of a disabled veteran as well as a disabled veteran ~ who may have a condition keeping him from "desk work" but who is otherwise able to do physical labor.
It's all very simple ~ 10 point veterans have taken it on the chin so that job brokers can bring in illegal aliens to cut grass at government civilian installations.
Your civilian salaries reflect the growth of illegal aliens in our work force. Your government salaries reflect the contracting out of low-wage jobs ~ or the "computerization/automation" of such work.
Someone smarter than I needs to run the numbers and figure out how many billions (trillions?) could be saved by adjusting the federal pay scale to be in line with private industry.
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