Posted on 04/26/2017 8:43:03 AM PDT by rktman
It’s been something of an article of faith around here that government workers have a pretty easy time of things compared to those of us laboring in the private sector. Having a job where it’s almost impossible to be fired no matter how well (or poorly) you perform, even during a recession, provides the sort of peace of mind most American workers can only dream of. And the pay and benefits are pretty sweet also, all thanks to the generosity of the American taxpayer. But specific data on such comparisons between the public and private sector can be a bit hard to come by since it’s not compiled on a regular basis. The last time the CBO did such a study it only covered the period between 2005 and 2010. We finally have an update, however, and the trends haven’t changed a bit. The Congressional Budget Office released their latest report yesterday covering the period from 2011 to 2015 and, if anything, government employees are doing even better than their private sector counterparts than they did in the previous half decade. (Government Executive)
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
When the government shuts down you get a free paid vacation.
When the govt shuts down we are, for the most part, a lot safer. Kinda like when congress is out of session.
I am retired military and now work straight for the DoD as a civilian. We are not allowed to join any unions (as if any of us would), and we get sent to some pretty exciting places (where no normal govie would ever go). I am currently in Sierra Leone dealing with the stuff that is left over from Ebola and their civil war.
And I hope Trump cuts every cent from all of the different aid programs to these places. It is used by the political leadership of these countries as cash cows to keep the populace from knowing how much they steal from their own countries.
The Orlando police chief has been jetting around the world, learning police stuff in places like Qatar. It’s absolutely essential he do so. Because, you know, crime....(eye roll).
As the poster hints at above, “government employee” is a really broad description.
It includes some fairly productive and constitutionally mandated functions, Courts, defense, etc... other employees that are generally accepted as competent like FBI Agents, marshals, Park Rangers, and many other people like regulators and VA administrators who are derided and often seen as incompetent.
Full Disclosure: I will soon be taking a DOD civilian position overseas.
I can't travel to a foreign country (including Canada) without providing details of exactly where I stayed and who I met,
I cannot travel to a country like Cuba and Russia and make acquaintances there,
I have to provide intimate details of my personal life and have an investigator check those details,
If I get a DUI, I lose my job,
If my neighbors dislike me, all they have to do is make stuff up when the investigator comes knocking on their door and I'll likely be fired after I lose my clearance,
Ditto with my ex-wife,
If I open a side business I have to account for all of the income from that business...ad infinitum.
/sickofdealingwithpeoplewhotrytopunchabovetheirheight
+
Sure it is! Show up and read the paper every day for 40 years and retire like a king.
gr8eman wrote: “If my neighbors dislike me, all they have to do is make stuff up when the investigator comes knocking on their door and I’ll likely be fired after I lose my clearance,”
“Ditto with my ex-wife,”
There were more questions every time I filled out those forms. The last time, they wanted to know my ex-wife’s current phone number, address, etc. I responded: “I have no idea where the bitch lives or her phone number. I haven’t seen her in 10 years and I have no intention of trying to find out.” I wonder if they thought we exchanged Christmas cards or something?
They also wanted to know if I had been out of country in the last five years. They wanted to know the address and fax number of the hotel I stayed in. I told them “I was in Korea with my NG unit for an exercise. We lived in a tent, not a hotel. The tent did not have a fax machine. I could give you the 10 digit coordinates of the tent, but the tent isn’t there since we brought it home with us.”
I see the stupid argument all the time from government employees: “I could have made much more money in the private sector, but I chose lower wages and career interest, to serve the public.”
Makes me want to vomit.
When the Govt shuts down, you get a free UNPAID vacation of unknown duratation. You may, or may not be paid for it. That is up to the Congress critters that created the mess to begin with.
We got a 1.3% raise last year, which is up from the 1% raise the year before, which is up from the 0% we had for the previous several years. These raises are pretty much fixed. Bonus? Ha ha ha ha
My commute is 90 minutes EACH WAY to work, daily. I am up at 4:20am, leave home at 5am and get home at 5pm nightly. I do enjoy every other Friday off as well as my weekends.
I was an engineer working in the computer industry, but the instability of the industry caused me to trade a ~50% cut in pay for stability.
Sour grapes? If it’s so much better working for the Govt, they are hiring. Check it out at USAJOBS.gov
See if you have the skills that are needed, see what the pay is, what the requirements are, and know what you are talking about. It’s much better than babbling about something you know nothing about.
Did you even read the article? The point is - Government employees are much more highly compensated than comparable private sector employees
Read the article first, then comment.
Has there ever been a shutdown in recent decades where the employees weren’t paid in full retroactively?
I’m single and would love nothing more to hook up with my old buddies in the Ukrainian Army and one or more of those smoking hot women over there. Working on my business!
I did read the article, and wish to say that the author of said article is “cherry picking” his fields of study. I am sure we can both point to Chemical, Software, Electrical Engineers that make far more than the standard GS-12 salary grade in industry. Likewise you will find Lawyers, Doctors, Psychiatrists, and other medical professionals earning more in the private sectors as well.
Yet, mysteriously these fields are missing from his analysis. So are Accountants, Contract Lawyers, CPA’s and a host of other degreed with professiknals.
Got it - you disagree with the premise of the article.
I assume they were comparing similar education or job requirements when making the comparison. I have no doubt there is a strata of private managerial staff who do much better than high level government employees - but this is a small segment, compared to 3 million Fed.gov employees
But note also - this is the Fed’s own CBO telling us this.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.