Federal salaries far outpace private sector

[Webmaster]

According to USA Today, the average federal employee makes US$81,258 and gets additional benefits worth US$41,791. The average private sector employee makes US$41,791, and gets US$10,589 in benefits. Add to that vastly greater job security and far more favorable pension rules, and it looks like "public service" comes at a considerable price. Of course, federal employees are now "angry" that Obama seeks to impose even a toothless partial payraise freeze.

[Rojodi]

According to USA Today, the average federal employee makes US$81,258 and gets additional benefits worth US$41,791. The average private sector employee makes US$41,791, and gets US$10,589 in benefits. Add to that vastly greater job security and far more favorable pension rules, and it looks like "public service" comes at a considerable price. Of course, federal employees are now "angry" that Obama seeks to impose even a toothless partial payraise freeze.

You can change that to State and Federa emplyees. I live near the state capital of New York, the employees are always whining they make lousy pay..but in reality they don't. They ALL should have pay freezes.

[snuggletiger]

Most of us have been enduring the pay freezes 2-3 years before you two ever mentioned it. Its more of been there and doing it. Come up with another solution. sucking up 28 billion out of a 3.5 trillion dollar budget doesn't even account for 1%. Oh yeah that 1% is going to be the 1% that puts us on the right track. :rolleyes: That is like me telling you don't pay your gas bill put that 200 dollars in a savings account and by golly that 2 dollars in interest alone will pay off your house mortgage.

[Big Beautiful Dreamer]

I used to process letters to the editor and would periodically get a form letter from the head of the state teachers' union sent to all the major papers in the state. He would complain about teachers being "threatened" with not getting a raise that year or, even more pricelessly, about their being provided a raise of only 4% to 5%. None of us at the paper, and nobody I knew elsewhere in the private sector, had seen even a suggestion of any raise at all for several years.

My sister and brother-in-law are both middle school teachers, and they earn every cent they get, but I don't think that state and federal employees are underpaid. I do think that school funding should cover Kleenex, notebook paper, glue sticks and the like so that neither parents nor teachers should have to pony up for them.

[Szombathy]

According to USA Today, the average federal employee makes US$81,258 and gets additional benefits worth US$41,791. The average private sector employee makes US$41,791, and gets US$10,589 in benefits. Add to that vastly greater job security and far more favorable pension rules, and it looks like "public service" comes at a considerable price. Of course, federal employees are now "angry" that Obama seeks to impose even a toothless partial payraise freeze.

That's perfectly justified. Federal employees are frequently highly educated people in highly skilled positions, and it is necessary to keep them paid reasonably well to avoid having them all go to the private sector. Even then, an Assistant U.S. Attorney, for example, is paid maybe one-tenth of what he or she would earn in the private sector as a partner in a law firm. The flaw in this analysis is that the average skills required for a federal job are in no way comparable to the average skills required for a non-state job.

No one goes into government work to get rich.

[Mack27]

That's perfectly justified. Federal employees are frequently highly educated people in highly skilled positions, and it is necessary to keep them paid reasonably well to avoid having them all go to the private sector. Even then, an Assistant U.S. Attorney, for example, is paid maybe one-tenth of what he or she would earn in the private sector as a partner in a law firm. The flaw in this analysis is that the average skills required for a federal job are in no way comparable to the average skills required for a non-state job.

No one goes into government work to get rich.

Really? I always got the impression that government jobs were all about patronage, you get them because you know somebody not because you're qualified. I also got the impression that federal workers often keep "banker's hours" not putting in full days. I've done work in federal buildings, that's the impression I get. The preponderance of obsolete technology in federal buildings as far as telecommunications and computing is a little disheartening.

I really wonder how well those federal employees would fair in the real world, I'm thinking not very well.

[Christov]

Question; are we talking federal workers in the non-specific sense or in the way that basically whittles down to national and state Government?

[bigmac]

That's perfectly justified. Federal employees are frequently highly educated people in highly skilled positions, and it is necessary to keep them paid reasonably well to avoid having them all go to the private sector. Even then, an Assistant U.S. Attorney, for example, is paid maybe one-tenth of what he or she would earn in the private sector as a partner in a law firm. The flaw in this analysis is that the average skills required for a federal job are in no way comparable to the average skills required for a non-state job.

No one goes into government work to get rich.

Your attorney numbers are a bit exaggerated (most private sector attorneys make much less than you think) -- but otherwise good points.

Also, there aren't too many entry level positions in the federal government (i.e. you have to have a BA and three years of experience before the FBI will even accept your application). And federal workers are clustered in high wage areas -- I wonder how the federal employee wage and benefit numbers would compare to equally qualified private sector employees in the metro DC area. People in DC, NYC, SF, and LA get paid more across the board (I used to make over 10k a month when I worked for SF firms -- doing work a trained monkey could handle).

[Fat Brian]

USA Today breakdown with job by comparison http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-03-04-federal-pay_N.htm

[bigmac]

Really? I always got the impression that government jobs were all about patronage, you get them because you know somebody not because you're qualified. ...

I really wonder how well those federal employees would fair in the real world, I'm thinking not very well.

While patronage may be a problem in local governments the federal civil service goes to extremes to limit patronage.

Its also been my experience that who you know is much more important when seeking private sector employment.

Regarding life in the real world -- private sector employees often slack just as much if not more -- especially if they feel they're being screwed -- example my plumber buddy and his coworkers had to take a big pay cut because there are now so many unemployed plumbers (but the business owners are still raking it in since they were never in the residential plumbing business). Result my buddy and his coworkers are moonlighting on company time with company equipment and as much company material as they can take without raising suspicion. In contrast I saw very little of this type of thing during my five years the Edmonton Public Works Department.

[Jay West Coast]

Could these numbers be a bit skewed based on the professions in the calculation pool? Something seems odd with it.

I know that, empirically speaking, in my field it's a white flag to work in the public side. You get paid less, the job is a lot less interesting, and you have to spend twice as long in your job to get the same amount of career growth.

Out of college, my uncle who was working in the Clinton Administration at the time admonished me not to go into the public sector because "they just pay half as much as what you would be earning for the same work" in the private sector, "out of service to the country." I don't think he disagreed with the service to the country, so much as people the taking advantage of the concept.

[smithnwesson]

That's perfectly justified. Federal employees are frequently highly educated people in highly skilled positions, and it is necessary to keep them paid reasonably well to avoid having them all go to the private sector. Even then, an Assistant U.S. Attorney, for example, is paid maybe one-tenth of what he or she would earn in the private sector as a partner in a law firm. The flaw in this analysis is that the average skills required for a federal job are in no way comparable to the average skills required for a non-state job.

No one goes into government work to get rich.

You're just joking, right? Just yanking on our collective leash. . .

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e223/jimshug/charlierangel.jpg

And Obama is unionizing all federal jobs in sight? Like the TSA.

Maybe we should look a Greece, Ireland, Portugal, or Spain to see where this shit is going.

JMHO - Jim