[Kandy Atz]

I’m trying to get my hands around the fact that “public servants” are earning 2 to 3 times the median HOUSEHOLD income of US citizens!

Something is horribly wrong with our government.

[paul51]

public service is more appropriately described as public gouging. The suggestion that congress and other gov’t employees are serving anyone but themselves is preposterous

[politicianslie]

Something is horribly wrong with our government.

This is a serious understatement. If the founding fathers were still around the revolution would already be over and the trash in Washington would have already been taken out.

[Viking2002]

Not only that, the federal employee unions make it damn near impossible for these parasites to get fired, no matter how poor their performance. They'd have to get a lengthy prison sentence to lose their place at the gummint trough. I spent ten years as federal contractor, and I saw ineptitude, laziness, and grab-assery that would get you a security escort to the front door in the private sector, and yeah, toward the end I had a big chip on my shoulder for having to carry the freight of people who were only half as talented, but making twice as much. It reminds me of a cartoon I saw in the back of one of my American Legion magazines last year - a guy was sitting in a shoe store, with his feet propped up on a table and his hands behind his head, and he was telling the shoe clerk, "I just got a government job - I need a pair of shoes that will look good up on my desk." Disgusting. That's not to say every last one of them are like that - a good friend of mine - a retired gunny from the Marines - spent 22 years with the Infernal Revenue Service, and ran circles around most of the others in the IT department we worked in. But he was an exception, not the rule. Having a career in the military can make you twice the man from the discipline alone.

[Fee]

Nothing horribly went wrong, it reflects changing times in the private sector due to globalism and free trade. The proper comparison is majority of fed workers are technical and office workers. Compare that pay ratio to its equivalent counterpart in private sector the pay ratio drops to below 2 to 1. Add the fact more than 2/3 of the fed workforce is over 50 years old or on the job for 20+ years, the pay increases and COLA will add up. Compatible comparisons and the ratio is about even. The numbers get tricky with senior management. Consider the number of workers, number of facilities and budgets they are responsible for the senior management of many agencies are equivalent to corporate America. There are no multi million dollar salaries execs in the government. If you factor this into the comparison, the fed pay is below private sector.
Private industry is mainly young and in their 30’s, people do not work in the same place to accrue larger salaries because private industry will fire anyone who stays too long and replace them with lower cost college grads. Now add offshoring jobs and H-1B worker to the mix, and suddenly the higher paying private sector is now lagging and falling behind the public sector because no one can stay in the same job long enough.
Government jobs were always available to college grads and private workers to apply, but during booming times no one wanted it because they could make more in the private sector. Fast foward 20 years, the government entry level worker is like the turtle in the rabbit and hare fable. Time in job is what allows the fed to attain a higher salary while the private sector worker goes thru a saber tooth salary pattern. What I mean is there are events in the private sector that is beyond the control of the private sector worker. Example merger and acquisitions can force layoffs, the worker laid off must find another job and many times he/she must start slightly lower to prove themselves in the new company before they recover the salary loss of the last job, and before that person can stay long enough, another crisis occurs and the company will layoff workers and the person will start the whole process all over, loss salary, reprove worth in new company, recover salary, start to progress and then another crisis hits and the process starts all over again. This is why it is call a saber tooth career and salary pattern. This will end when the worker approaches late 40’s and age discrimination kicks in as companies want a young and vibrant image, and a college kid with the latest knowledge and lower salary can displace the older workers. Now the older tech/office worker, if lucky can find a job to finish his career, and such job is usually in a smaller company that pays about 1/3 less with little or no benefits.
The only way a private sector worker can avoid this fate is to make it into management, especially in the executive inner management and staff where your CEO patron can screw up and everyone still gets a bonus and be shielded from layoffs.

[The Doctor]

It’s even worse than the salary figures. Federal employees have more holidays than private sector employees, and they are nearly impossible to fire.

[IYellAtMyTV]

"I’m trying to get my hands around the fact that “public servants” are earning 2 to 3 times the median HOUSEHOLD income of US citizens! Something is horribly wrong with our government."

'public servant' is semantically equal to 'Public Master'. ~ R.A.H.