Fed Workers Enjoy Boom Time– Average Pay Now at $71K Compared to $40K in Private Sector
Posted by Jim Hoft on Friday, December 11, 2009, 5:02 AM
Just because its the “greatest recession since the Great Depression” does not mean that everyone is hurting.
Government workers are enjoying a boom time since the democrats took over Congress. The average pay of a federal worker jumped to $71,206, compared with $40,331 in the private sector.
The TimesNews reported, via Free Republic:
USA Today is reporting that the number of federal workers making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession’s first 18 months — and that’s doesn’t include overtime pay and bonuses are counted.
Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector.
The highest-paid federal employees are doing best of all on salary increases. Defense Department civilian employees earning $150,000 or more increased from 1,868 in December 2007 to 10,100 in June 2009, the most recent figure available.The trend to six-figure salaries is occurring throughout the federal government, in agencies big and small, high-tech and low-tech. The primary cause: substantial pay raises and new salary rules. The growth in six-figure salaries has pushed the average federal worker’s pay to $71,206, compared with $40,331 in the private sector.
For the record… Congressional raises topped insurance company profits last year.
Related… Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.) gave his staffer and girlfriend a $14,000 raise last year.
ADVERTISEMENT
-
Featured Story:
Horrible… Obama Tells Foolish Supporters: I’m Not Over-Spending… “I’m Running to Pay Down Our Debt”
Published May 23, 2012 at 11:51 pm - 59 Comments
nickless commented:
Of course. All they have to do to give out fat raises is take it from us.
No Man commented:
A few weeks ago No Man had to go to DC.
You would not believe the building going on.
May be that reflects the ruling class’ being so out-of-touch with Main Street. It’s a gold rush in DC and the rest of us are broke.
They are sucking the money out of the productive sector and growing super-rich on the working stiff.
I blame Bush.
Becky commented:
Because they think they are doing vital public service and deserve as much as they can get.
It doesn’t matter what level of government worker, they tend to feel their job cannot be eliminated, nor that the work they do is on par and could just as easily be performed by the private sector.
And as an independent contractor, I have found generally that union workers and government workers are cheap when it comes to paying others. Not a fact, just my experience and opinion based on that. I don’t think most realize how hard it is to make a business work.
squeaky commented:
federal employees will be getting a 2% raise in january 2010 – approved by obama – the smallest since 1975 [buried at end of article].
meanwhile, how many in the private sector are
being told that there won’t be any raises.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-12-10-federal-pay-salaries_N.htm
CHICO commented:
This is an idiot’s analysis. Comparing average federal employee salaries to average salaries from the private sector doesn’t take into account that the federal government doesn’t employ people like fry guys, gas station attendants, amusement park workers, waiters, etc…. So take out all of the unskilled workers making minimum wage and low skilled ones like those that work retail, and you’ll find that people with the same skill set will make less as a federal employee than in private industry.
Just another example of how “tortured results will admit to anything”.
listingstarboard commented:
Chico don’t you just HATE idiot analysis? Like the one about how our health care is far behind other countries except that they factor in deaths from transportation and other accidents of which the USA exceeds all others when if they counted actual mortality from lack of health care the US would be #1. Funnyhow people twist data isn’t it.
Robert commented:
State and local salaries are high, too. Over time, this will create a situation wherein the government workers will be the elite, and the rest of us rubes will just have to get along with whatever they leave us.
Just like your standard banana republic.
Robert commented:
I wonder what 1,700 employees of the Federal Aviation Administration do to make more than $170,000?
CHICO commented:
Listing,
I don’t think its funny at all. Its maddening.
archer52 commented:
Read a book about Mao’s world circa about 1966-1976. I’m working my way through it now and as much as it really does take a score card to keep track of the players, one of the main points I caught almost immediately is that the Chinese government was HUGE! Most of the people seemed to either be poor “drones” or they worked for the government as some low level bureaucrat. The advantage to Mao was he could control vast numbers of people because they were afraid of losing their jobs or being attacked by others equally afraid of losing their jobs. It was a mass mind control effort really run by one man.
A buddy of mine suggested the book after hearing me compare Obama to the 1920′s version of Mussolini. He said, “Don’t look over there, look over here. Read a little about Mao and his vision of governing.” I did and as I read the book I’m going, almost page by page, “Hey, I’ve seen that here… Yikes!”
The love affair with Mao that consumes more than one administration employee is not an accident. Mao did good controlling the huge population in China. He did it mostly by causing constant upheaval and fear. He truly believed that the revolution never stopped and that chaos and fear were great tools to be used. He ran hundreds of operations at the same time, keeping everybody guessing and worried.
Sound familiar?
The Triguy commented:
Chico,
I’m going to take slight issue with you. Do you know anything about the benefits packages offered by the Fed? If not, they are the best. And they have a choice of several (last time I checked). My understanding was that was done to “offset” the lower wages provided by the Fed as compared to the private industry. Oh, and they do have employees (car jockies and such) who are at the very bottom of the economic chart.
My bigger issue comes from the raises they get. I work for a not-for-profit membership group. My salary (along with everyone else in my company) was frozen this year. My taxes were still collected even though my salary didn’t go up. I find out later that stim money (which I contributed to as a tax payer) went to government employees to give them a pay raise! To top that off, they counted those raises as “jobs saved” in their grand scheme to fudge the employment numbers. That is nothing more than the ultimate in smoke and mirrors.
Joan of Argghh! commented:
Yep. I’m just a sweet government job away from pissing on my own countrymen.
And when you consider that law enforcement and military folks need to feed their families, too, well hey, they may not really want to arrest us, or point a gun at us if we object to the slavery. It’s paying their salary, after all.
JR commented:
There was a time where the government bureaucrats accepted a slightly smaller salary in exchange for a bit more job security, and a better retirement package.
Now, government bureaucrats get the higher salaries, have the job security, and have retirement packages that provide medical coverage and sweetened pension levels with cost of living increases.
Try getting those perks in the real world.
Militant Conservative commented:
Open your focus up a little more. Both the parties are weasels right now. Far left Democrats and Moderate piss in the pants Republicans. Conservatives need to take back the Republican party and mop the floor with all that oppose reducing government, cut taxes and stengthen the military. Gee, this sounds like it’s been done before, and it worked! We are the producers, Government is a nessesary evil and must be kept within due bounds.
Vinman commented:
I agree it’s not a perfect analysis. . .Hard to compare. . .I would think the difference in job growth rates between the two would be more interesting.
CHICO commented:
Tri,
I am quite familiar with the benefits package of the fed, I used to be one. Anywho, nowhere in my post did i comment on whether federal employees are over or under-compensated. I just said that it was a moronic way of looking at salary data. There is only one line in your comment that would indicate that you have an issue with what I said:
“Oh, and they do have employees (car jockies and such) who are at the very bottom of the economic chart”
I can only speak from my experience, but that is not true. Jobs such as cafeteria staff, janitorial staff, groundskeeping, construction, and security (so a range of less to more skilled), had all been contracted out. So even though the US government is still paying for these services, the positions wouldn’t show up in the federal wage statistic.
Also, please show me a link for a “car jockey” job opening. I think you pulled that one out of your butt.
Militant Conservative commented:
Good job CHICO, hold thier feet to the fire and make them back up everything they say with facts and proof. At some point they (opponent) will start to call you names or impugne your character. When that happens just smile, cuz they just ceeded the argument. LOL
The Triguy commented:
Chico,
I said slight issue. I agree it’s probably not the best way to look at data. But then again, neither is the tortured concept of jobs saved which this administration throws up every time they discuss the impact the stim bill has had on our employment numbers.
As for contracted labor doing the work instead of hiring employees, I don’t care which party controls the purse strings, that’s just another way of playing with the numbers. (And yes, I did pull a car jockey out of my butt. Well, not a car jockey but you know what I mean.)
Robert commented:
I just heard some statistics on the radio, saying that
in December 2007, 263,000 people made over $100,000.
Now, 382,750 make over $100,000.
66,000 people make over $150,000.
22,000 people make over $170,000.
The federal government is adding 10,000 jobs/month.
It’s out of control, folks.
The whole thing is out of control.
These people will get rich enough to be a real power base,
and they will vote for more government every time.
averagemelon commented:
Wrong. We WAY out-number them. They are not going to enslave us…but you will have to put up with the most stupid of your countrymen who think only of themselves and all others be damned.
Robert commented:
The Democrats boast of $130 billion in deficit reduction over 10 years if the “health care” package is passed.
The Democrats have already run a $296.7 billion deficit in the first two months of this fiscal year, more than twice the projected deficit reduction.
In the first month of this year, they have spent all the savings for the next ten years.
At this rate, we’ll be enslaved with debt by June.
Robert commented:
I wonder why they are not trying to reduce “waste, fraud, and abuse” in Medicare yet to save us $450 billion. What are they waiting for?
Surely some of those high-paid federal executives could find a few examples of inefficiency in the bloated bureaucracy.
anon commented:
It’s the NSPS (National Security Personnel System) not all federal employees are under this system.
The higher-up employee is, they get the fat raise.
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Personnel_System
http://www.cpms.osd.mil/nsps/compensation.html
AnnS commented:
I just retired from the Federal Government 15+ years. The highest pay I made was 28,000. I considered it a privledge; working with the veterans and military and always felt guilty about getting paid too much.
Marsh commented:
My father works for the EPA and makes like $145,000+ a year. He’s a G15 or whatever you call it which is the highest you go up the federal ladder I think. Not sure about that though. Our family is totally insulated from the recession so we haven’t faced any hardship at all. It’s also almost impossible for him to get fired or to take a pay cut. In fact his pay has nearly nearly doubled from what it was 10 years or so ago. He also has seemingly limitless sick leave hours. And a few years ago he had to arrive to work late every single day and leave early every single day in order to help take me and my siblings to football practices and whatnot for which he was never threatened with losing his job. He’s even allowed to work at home at least one day a week so he really only has 4 day work weeks if he so chose. And of course he’s always voted for democrats out of job security. To be completely honest it’s a very good feeling knowing that your family will always be financially stable no matter what happens to the economy or how sick you become. If anyone can get a job working for the federal government I highly recommend it. But it only reassures me how important it is to have a very strong private sector and to shrink the size of wasteful big government. And to be fair to my father he deserves his cushy job. He’s a former U.S. Army Ranger who saw lots of combat in Vietnam and is lucky to be alive, he recieved his doctorate from one of the best colleges in the country, he’s recieved numerous awards for being a model employee and he doesn’t abuse the system even though he could. But yes, the conservatives are totally right about waging a Crusade against the growth of government. It truly is a wasteful commi mess.