Are Federal Workers Overpaid? Watch Heritage vs the Unions Wednesday

heritage.org ^ | 3/7/11 | staff

[Nachum]

The Federal Times calls it a “steel cage match” in which “two wonks enter, one wonk leaves.” Congressional hearings are never that exciting, but Wednesday’s House Oversight Committee hearing on federal pay does promise some spirited debate. At issue is how the federal government pays its civilian workers—and, more importantly, whether it pays them too much. Leaders of the Office of Personnel Management and National Treasury Employees Union will confront critics of federal pay for the first time in public. Those critics – “in the red corner” as the Federal Times puts it – are Heritage’s James Sherk and Andrew Biggs of AEI.

Defenders of the federal pay system will have a difficult task during the hearing. They must explain the following:

* (a) why federal workers earn 10 to 20 percent higher wages than private workers with the same skills * (b) why private workers who switch into the federal government see a larger wage increase than private workers who find another private sector job * (c) why federal workers earn benefits more

[MsLady]

When I went to work for the federal government in the early 80’s. The whole purpose of getting that job was for the benefits and job security. The pay wasn’t all that great. Now that has changed drastically over the past decade.

[SkyPilot]

Fed workers have no CB rights, just had their pay frozen for 2 years, and their health care costs are going up just as much as everyone else's are.

I also don't believe USA Today's (i.e. McPaper's) claim that the "average" Fed worker makes anything close to what they claim in their articles. They tried to back-peddle on their numbers, saying it included "benefits" but they never outlined them.

[yetidog]

So-call pay comparability, affirmative action and abuse of the classification system has not helped either although I do agree moving away from the Civil Service Retirement System to FERS has been a step in the right direction and one that other governmental employers should look at. Ditto for the Federal Employee Health Plan versus Obamacare.

[mom4melody]

I a federal employee, but I worked private sector for 25 plus years first.

My salary just now made it to my 2002 private sector salary, even though my job is much more complex.

And the benefits....please, we use my DH’s insurance because the Fed plans cost way too much, and besides the life insurance which I pay for, that’s about it in benefits.

[Seruzawa]

Yes and no. Technical jobs like IT or EE are usually lower than private sector. But there are lots of do nothing paper-pusher and middle management positions that don’t serve any useful function at all, so those would all be overpaid. And a lot of lower level administrative jobs get falsely labeled at higher level and so, yes, those are over paid. Like calling the file clerk a “Travel Specialist”. But it’s not across the board.

[MsLady]

I quit that job when I married my husband in ‘83. He was in the military and you know what that means. Move, move and more moves.

[artificial intelligence]

One of the big problems is that while you are being paid to do a job. Another 10 that used to do that job are now being paid to do nothing and retired. It is all the dead weight.

[KrisKrinkle]

How far are they willing to take this?

Should the top echelons in the public sector get paid what the top echelons in the private sector are paid?