Posted on 03/11/2010 7:24:03 AM PST by bestintxas
Security, wages, benefits beat private sector's. The recession and the ongoing jobless recovery devastated much of the private-sector work force last year, sending unemployment soaring, but government workers emerged essentially unscathed, according to data released Wednesday by the Labor Department.
Meanwhile, the compensation for state and local government employees continued to easily outdistance the wages and benefits for workers in private business, a separate Labor Department report showed.
Private-industry employers spent an average of $27.42 per hour worked for total employee compensation in December, while total compensation costs for state and local government workers averaged $39.60 per hour.
The average government wage and salary per hour of $26.11 was 35 percent higher than the average wage and salary of $19.41 per hour in the private sector. But the percentage difference in benefits was much higher. Benefits for state and local workers averaged $13.49 per hour, nearly 70 percent higher than the $8 per hour in benefits paid by private businesses.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
That’s the scale Obango wants to permanently tip......
Time to shake the trees and also cut wages and benefits competitive with counterparts in the private sector.
Dump the bureaucrats but keep the people who actually do legitimate work that needs to be done, like say, the FBI . . .
Border Patrol, CIA, etc.
Ideally, limit the feds to doing what the Constitution actually allows them to do & problems solved.
In Michigan Washtenaw county is doing better than the rest of us. Incidentally they happen to have the highest percentage of taxpayer funded jobs in the state. Its no surprise that they also tend to be happy with new taxes.
“That’s the scale Obango wants to permanently tip......”
Yup! Once the percentage of people dependant on the gvt, whether through welfare, etc, or employment approaches 50%, then the soicalists have a permanent majority.
Earlier this week it was announced that Loudoun County, VA was the ‘wealthiest’ in the nation, followed by Fairfax County, VA as #2. Arlington County VA is #9. I believe nearby Montgomery County, MD and Howard County, MD were in the top 10.
And, what do those counties have in common? Bedroom communities for DC government workers.
Those counties are not wealthy in the sense that any of them is a “Millionaire’s Row,” but that it’s mile after mile after mile of middle to upper-middle income families. Those are either government workers or those who work for companies dependent on government funding or grants.
Ronald Reagen learned firsthand how difficult it is to cut the size of government. Those who are the most damaging are not the elected ones, but rather the hoard of bureaucrats who have gotten a foot in the door and then spend most their time feathering their nests and making sure they can’t be touched by the normal methods used to cut fat and waste.
Until we find a way to reign in that part of government we are doomed to see it grow and grow.
0bama is clearly supporting his most ardent constituents. These will be the only people to keep him in power. 0bama’s economic policy plays into this. 0bama actively wants to restrain economic growth in the private sector. He know that with so much debt monetization ie money printing, economic growth will result in inflation as currency velocity increases. Unemployment may only affect an additional 5% of the population, but inflation affects everyone and is a political consequence that will be squarely placed on the Dims and especially 0bama.
This article is about the excess benefits enjoyed by STATE and LOCAL government workers. Federal workers do have decent benefits, but they’re nowhere excessive, as state and local workers’ benefits are. Important to remember this distinction!
Bwahahaha....suckers!
Here in the WDC area its “Partee Time!” on your dime. Low unemployment, big houses, lots of stores, many nice restaurants... If you have never visited here you’d be shocked. Your tax money is supporting good times. So just sit in your sofa in front of your trailer and shut up. Oh, by the way...keep paying those taxes, you fly-over morons. Bwahahahahahahahahahahaha! (brought to you by government worker unions and politicians)
In Michigan Washtenaw county is doing better than the rest of us. Incidentally they happen to have the highest percentage of taxpayer funded jobs in the state. Its no surprise that they also tend to be happy with new taxes.
Washtenaw County is also home to Ann Arbor and the U of M.
So this indicates a high percentage of Marxists from academia, and tons of public employees on the payroll of a state university.
For state and local employees this is about to change though. Tax receipts are continuing to plummet and the Porkulus money is running out. Cuts and layoffs are looming. Look for pressure on Obama to start bailing out blue states and big cities to start getting intense.
Between education and municipal, they pretty much run the show in Ann Arbor.
You missed the part about “state and local” didn’t you?
“This article is about the excess benefits enjoyed by STATE and LOCAL government workers. Federal workers do have decent benefits, but they’re nowhere excessive, as state and local workers’ benefits are. Important to remember this distinction!”
I do appreciate that distinction.
State and local workers are more accountable to the taxpayer. The smaller the organization is, the more an individual or group of individuals can have impact to change it. Not so with the DC crowd.
Having said that, do federal workers suffer by the horrible debt we are incurring in this country? It seems they get paid “off the top” while other federal expenditures are belly-up like SS or Medicare, or getting the ax like NASA.
Why should their income or pensions be kept inviolate?
Its a recession proof job for life, unless you are enlisted or commissioned in the military.
I wonder how many civilian government employees get fired for poor job performance. I think I have a general idea.
The vast majority of federal government employees work all over America.
Here's reason #1, an awful lot of us live in states with very accommodating weapons and firearms laws. We know how to shoot straight. Reason #2, an awful lot of federal government retirees are smart cookies who know how to game the system.
You don't want them doing that Fur Shur.
So, between getting shot right between the eyes or poisoned at a four star restaurant, don't you imagine the typical politician understands why he has to leave his grubby little greasy mits off those pensions!
“So, between getting shot right between the eyes or poisoned at a four star restaurant, don’t you imagine the typical politician understands why he has to leave his grubby little greasy mits off those pensions!”
So does that mean you are happy on future payments you believe you will recieve from Social Security? Why, that is a pension yet is totally, unmitigately a disaster bankruptcy.
Printing presses still work.
well of course! You know we really NEED government you know. And not just government, I mean more government. Duh!
I believe the biggest problem is, I believe, prevailing wage. The Federal Government sets a single pay rate for a given pay grade independent of where you are in the US. That pay rate is set to be a “living wage” for DC, NY, SF, and the like. Meaning that in the vast majority of the US we’re severely overpaying for the position based upon cost of living.
Government payroll should not be flat across the scope of the Government, but relative to the typical wage in the locality of the job. If you’re a GS-9 in McPherson, KS you should make less than a GS-9 in DC or NY. But of course, that’s not “fair” so you make the same amount, thereby being vastly overpaid relative to equivalent private industry workers in McPherson, KS.
PugetSoundSoldier, clearly you know nothing about federal pay scales. Your description of the federal pay system is exactly the opposite of reality. The standard federal pay scale applies across the country except in high-cost municipalities, for which the employee receives a supplement!
I guess Federal Pay scales have been further skewed. I do know that a friend who was a GS-11 in Seattle maintained the exact same pay when he moved to John Day, OR (cost of living about half the Seattle area), making him an exceedingly well paid engineer - probably the highest paid in the entire city of John Day.
Flat-rate wages for any Government agency should be banned, as the tendency is to set pay rates for the most expensive area within its jurisdiction, and maintains that flat rate for all workers in all areas.
Even having a supplement for high wage is wrong; the cost of living in most of New Mexico is considerably less than that of any State in the NE, yet the pay scale is the same. The issue isn’t an extra supplement, the issue is the flat nature of pay scale to start with. Pay scale should be set at the regional office level, not across the organization as a whole.
In the State of Washington, why we pay the same rate for the same person in Seattle as we do in Colville or Quincy (cost of living about 35% of Seattle) is beyond me. We’re vastly overpaying in those lower cost areas.
Why have all those corporations moved to or set up offices in the DC area? Because of THE industry in the area: government. They can’t do a thing in business without the government regulating them. They have a major lobbying presence; most of their non-lobbying staffs are consultants, compliance officers, or proposal drafters, not production line workers.
The educated and high skilled workforce is not just locally grown. Recent college graduates know to come to DC-Metro because it’s where the jobs are. Our local industry is the only one growing in the US today.
In recent years, government-related firms have opened throughout the DC suburbs, i.e., around Tysons Corner, instead of staying focused in DC itself. Do you remember when Tysons Corner was nothing but a couple of horse farms? When the weekly flight out of Dulles was a big deal? Wasn’t THAT long ago. That growth reflects more than anything the growth of government.
You can say that ‘the vast majority of federal government employees work all over America’ but with few exceptions those aren’t the ones whose actions so heavily impact the lives of all other Americans. The postman in Dubuque doesn’t affect anyone’s ability to start and grow a business. The bureaucrat at EPA in DC does.
The USPS does not do that.
One of the consequences of that policy is that USPS finds it difficult to attract talented personnel to work at National Headquarters located in DC.
They find it difficult to attract people to that site from the Washington DC suburbs.
If you need an engineer with a doctorate in a specialty field you can find him on Route 28 in Western Fairfax County. Want a guy who can make a full length film explaining how to assemble X04305z parts, go to Montgomery County or Fairfax or Arlington. Need a computer programmer who can handle superannuated programming methods as well as the latest stuff ~ you go to Fairfax and Prince William Counties.
Right in my neighborhood I can think of a couple of dozen engineers including people who've taught engineering courses at the finest universities on earth. You don't send folks like that downtown to talk to some ignant Congresscritter or his even more ignant homosexual staffer.
The nonprofit organizations with nationwide reach have found this to be a good place for their headquarters. The top dogs may wine and dine those Congressional staffers, but the working stiffs run the publications, do the websites, collect the money and pay the bills. You find those folks in Bethesda and Silver Spring (on both sides of the DC/MD line). Or, you can go to Alexandria VA and they're just all over the place.
bfl
“In the State of Washington, why we pay the same rate for the same person in Seattle as we do in Colville or Quincy (cost of living about 35% of Seattle) is beyond me. We’re vastly overpaying in those lower cost areas.”
Nope. The employee in Seattle doesn’t make the same salary as the employee in Colville or Quincy.
Google OPM and federal pay scales and educate yourself about locality pay, please.
Tain’t Republicans vs Democrats....its DC vs Flyover Country..
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