Posted on 08/31/2009 2:37:14 PM PDT by gartrell bibberts
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.
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.
What is going on here? Members of Congress who have large numbers of federal workers in their districts relentlessly push for expanding federal worker compensation. Also, the Bush administration had little interest in fiscal restraint, and it usually got rolled by the federal unions. The result has been an increasingly overpaid elite of government workers, who are insulated from the economic reality of recessions and from the tough competitive climate of the private sector.
It’s time to put a stop to this. Federal wages should be frozen for a period of years, at least until the private-sector economy has recovered and average workers start seeing some wage gains of their own. At the same time, gold-plated federal benefit packages should be scaled back as unaffordable given today’s massive budget deficits. There are many qualitative benefits of government work—such as extremely high job security—so taxpayers should not have to pay for such lavish government pay packages.
Holy crap ..... that SUCKS.
“Holy crap ..... that SUCKS.”
Not if you are on the teat, it don’t.
When I have nothing left I plan to come for “their” stuff.
no wonder we are so far in debt.
if we the people can’t stop this crap we the people should all get fed jobs.
I don’t know what everyone is worried about. You have to pay your “Civilian Army” don’t you?
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Public-sector unions are an oxymoron, and their couurt-ordered legal status should be revoked.
Their "contracts" aren't worth the paper they're written on, since one legislature cannot bind its successor, and courts cannot enforce these phony contracts because to do so requires raising revenue, a purely legislative function.
ROME!
What a shocker...fraud, waste & abuse found in the federal government. I am truly speechless...
Very misleading data. This only attempts to compare the average pay of a federal worker to the average pay of a non-federal worker. As such it is interesting but not very meaningful. It would have been useful if they had attempted to compare of the pay of a federal engineer with the pay of an engineer in private industry.
To be real about this you have to compare job classes. Average wages in the private sector reflect ALL job classes, even the most menial; read ‘fries with that’.
There are no government employment classes for burger flipper. The lowest wage scales do the actual shit work of this world and are found in the private sector.
Government emploment classes tend to be oriented toward more technical areas and skilled labor.
Anybody can holler ‘unfair’ but until you do an actual employment class breakdown it’s all bullshit for the masses.
It does not matter. The fact remains government jobs pay very well but produce absolutely no wealth for the country.
What democrats know is that if you simply keep expanding government evetually it becomes so big it’s self sustaining. No one will vote themselves out of a job. If we are not there yet we are getting very close to the point of no return.
When the government becomes the number one employer, no one will vote to change it. Eventually the whole thing will simply collapse of it’s own weight. Ask the Soviet Union.
I seriously fear we are at a point where we have lost control and will never be able to shrink the ever expanding gov.
I work in the private sector and I make $2000 more than I did 3 years ago. Now my wages are frozen AND I am at the top of my scale. No raise for me or a lot of my fellow workers at my company for the foreseeable future. It is so far past time for government workers to be forced to wake up and smell the coffee.
The worst part is that most of them are sitting on their behinds doing next to nothing or worse yet working doing something completely counterproductive so that we would be better off if they called in sick and went fishing.
Ad then the pathetic mantra “oh my husband works in public service and sacrifices good pay for us”. Or she’s a school teacher and does it for the love and not the pay.
Puke.
I seriously fear we are at a point where we have lost control and will never be able to shrink the ever expanding gov.
Bingo.
“I seriously fear we are at a point where we have lost control and will never be able to shrink the ever expanding gov.”
Bingo.
I work for DoD and for my profession, with my years, education, certifications, etc., I am dead on the median income for all government and private employees shown by the data from the various professional societies.
If anyone thinks it’s such a gravy train I suggest you fill out a resume and go to http://www.usajobs.gov/
If you think it’s such a treat to work for the fedgov, I would remind you that everyday is like a visit to the IRS for an audit.
In the early 90’s DoD went through reductions in force, closed several installations. Many had to move, many lost their jobs. In the mid-90’s we had pay freezes for a few years and I expect to have pay freezes again now as well we should.
One other thing. The GWB administration contracted out many of the lower paying jobs over the last eight years.
There aren’t government employee janitors out there and even a lot of the ship overhauls are mostly contractors now. Those used to be some of the lower paid mechanics that used to work for DoD.
The higher paying jobs like engineers are still DoD, driving up the median pay.
Of course it matters. It matters because of the inaccuracy of the dataset.
Don't like gov't employees? Fine. All a bunch of deadwood doing zip for big bucks. Whatever.
No argument from me that most state, local and federal entities could use either a severe trimming or outright elimination. This process is already happening on the state and muni level - the feds of course keep adding commissars and camp guards to oversee the development of the New Socialist Man.
My point of course is that it's dishonest to use these numbers as presented to make that argument. The only function for this data is to incite and not enlighten.
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