My error on the COLA. I got mixed up with the other pay benefits like step increases, bonuses, promotions et al. Sorry for that.
I know it is a popular thing to beat up the fed work force on many issues like benefits. But when it comes to pay I generally found most of those I dealt with were over paid in comparison to private sector personnel doing the same or a similar job when benefits such as job protections came into play. I speak from experience of working both inside and outside the government. The one thing the fed work group has is a lot of political clout in and around DC with the Dem Party. They vote for the dems because that is who buys their votes. In the DC area, they are surrounded by those who live off the fed government almost 100%.
The DC area federal reps are somewhat different than the big city commie dems from elsewhere in the country. I call them the fed socialist type of Dem, not the ones who want a new system as it would put them out of business.
I totally get that for sure. I was military for 24 years and then did about 3 years of federal government work before I said heck with this. The benefits are good although I didn’t use their medical but did use the dental which was ok at best. The days off were fine, but I never got to the 6-hours of leave a payday or whatever it was. The pension sucks! I was thinking of working 20 years from age 42-62 but when I did the figures, it was 20 percent of the final 3 years working and thought not worth it...possibly not even a 1,000 a month so I left and never looked back. The military retirement is much better. Now as far as Congress goes, theirs is much better as it is 2 percent a year, so had I worked for some Congressmen, I would have gotten 40 percent of final 3 years which would have been worth it most likely. Anyway, they are for the most part over paid....there were a ton of GS-11’s in my building.....too many quite frankly. I am still stunned that the State Department has something like 38 thousand working and the Department of Defense has 115,000.....RIDICULOUS!!!!!!