This Is Called Theft: Fed Workers Make Twice As Much As Private Sector
Posted by Jim Hoft on Tuesday, August 10, 2010, 5:36 PM
This ought to make you sick…
Federal workers make twice as much as workers in the private sector.
While the rest of the nation suffered through Obama’s first year in office, government workers increased their salaries by over $30,000 in 2009.
Do you know how long it will take for the private sector to catch up to these outrageous federal salaries?
USA Today reported:
At a time when workers’ pay and benefits have stagnated, federal employees’ average compensation has grown to more than double what private sector workers earn, a USA TODAY analysis finds.
Federal workers have been awarded bigger average pay and benefit increases than private employees for nine years in a row. The compensation gap between federal and private workers has doubled in the past decade.Federal civil servants earned average pay and benefits of $123,049 in 2009 while private workers made $61,051 in total compensation, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The data are the latest available.
The federal compensation advantage has grown from $30,415 in 2000 to $61,998 last year.Public employee unions say the compensation gap reflects the increasingly high level of skill and education required for most federal jobs and the government contracting out lower-paid jobs to the private sector in recent years.
Will someone please start a revolution.
Where’s the tough Republican who will propose to cut these gluttonous federal salaries?
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infinite commented:
NJ Gov. Chris Christie has the guts.
Saint commented:
There IS no politician that will stop it. The states need to step and re-organize the federal governments role in America.
Midwestengr commented:
You can bet that the members of the armed forces didn’t get that kind of raise.
BTW, if I was a government worker, and had to get up every morning to work for this A$$clown administration, I’d want some serious jack too!
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aro5o75 commented:
Buy ammo, lot’s of ammo.
Ang commented:
Is this comparing apples to oranges? My husband is a Electrical Engineer for the Department of the Interior and he makes substantially less than an EE of equal education, experience level and job description in the private sector. Is this comparing EVERYONE who works for the government – most of whom have higher education degrees to EVERYONE else including McD’s burger flippers and NJ gas pumpers?
I understand comparing an average increase to an average increase, and comparing EE to EE, or JAG to Private Lawyer, apples to apples. But to not differentiate between those positions seems to make this a non-statistic. I could, and very well may be wrong, and would like to know if I am and how it all really works out. Thanks!
Midwestengr commented:
aro5o75 | #5
You’ve got that right!
SandyfromChesterfield commented:
“The compensation gap reflects the increasingly high level of skill and education required for most federal jobs. I GUESS IT DOES TAKE REAL SKILL TO LOOK AT PORN ALL DAY! These jobs produce nothing unlike a private sector job.
aro5o75 commented:
With unemployment rising in the private sector and employment booming in the federal sector– it seems to me that the percentage of voters in the private sector will soon be, or, are now outnumbered by the bought and paid for voters in the federal sector.
Am I paranoid or could this present some problems?
Dwayne the canoe guy commented:
As a member of the DoD I can say that I make more than the average in my state. I think the key word in all of this is “average”. I don’t know of many positions in the Federal government that pay minimum wage. The minimum wage is going to skew the private sector average downward.
On the other hand, the Feds have waaaay too many people doing the same task for waaaay too much money and with their pay on the heavier end that will skew the Fed average upward.
Don’t paint all Fed workers with the same brush. At my current GS level I can only get a non-cost of living raise once every 3 years. Before I retire I’m going to top out on my GS level. The only way to make more is go into Management but I am a very happy tech head that would rather push buttons and solve problems than push paper solve budgets.
I could also make more & be more upwardly mobile in the private sector, but having had 4 corporation go belly up while I worked for them, I’m getting a little gun-shy. Also, I would rather be solving problems for the military than solving problems for a grocery store chain.
Captain Ned commented:
State worker here. I have Federal counterparts who do the exact same thing I do but I have to enforce things over a wider class of “clients”. With my experience and training I could jump straight into the Federal job for a 50% pay increase but I’d have to move. Not happening, not even for a 50% raise.
Oh, and for the record: My pension will hopefully be 50% of my average last 3 years at age 62 minimum (I expect this to change to an age + years formula shortly, not that I really expect the state pension plan to survive the Boomer retirements) with a COLA of 50% of the CPI.
Captain Ned commented:
Oops:
Age 62 minimum with 30 years of service.
In Colorado commented:
I question the validity of this data. It must include political appointees and elected officials to make this disparity. I’ve been in civil service for over 8 years and make nowhere near that amount. My agency contributes 5% to my 401k (about $3k annually). I pay for ALL of my health insurance, I earn 4 weeks vacation and 104 hours of sick leave annually. That doesn’t even come close to the “average” $123k compensation package. Further, in my position, which requires deployment with combat forces, I earn less than comparable civilian sector jobs.
Freddy commented:
Does this include those wonderfull people at MMS that failed to do their job?
How about the crack team of experts that tracked down Madoff over at the SEC?
ANY government worker that DREAMS that these kind of pay scales will survive for very long is completely delusional. Or maybe just watching porn and cheating on their taxes like many in this administration are fond of doing.
Theocracy commented:
I’m not qualified to address the statistical bases for these comparisons (the fact that private sector includes minimum wage and/or low-skilled jobs, and Federal/Civilian doesn’t), but I hope Mr. Hoft will correct something in his post: Current administration has been in control for something less than two years, and the increase (over $30,000 in Hoft’s post) was from 2000 to 2009. Not a mathematician, but current administration was in charge for, oh, about one-ninth of that time.