Posted on 03/25/2010 9:48:13 AM PDT by Poundstone
The Obama administration's personnel chief has assigned a task force to come up with "ironclad" data showing that feds do not earn far more than their private-sector counterparts.
The move comes after organizations such as the libertarian Cato Institute and conservative lawmakers have criticized federal employees' pay, which they say is more than 50 percent higher on average than private-sector salaries.
Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry told Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, at a Senate Appropriations Committee that such statements are "misinformation" and are not based on like comparisons.
(Excerpt) Read more at fedsmith.com ...
I saw OPM and thought “Other People’s Money”, not “Office of Personnel Mgt.” Oh, the irony.
Because pushing paper in a government office is nothing like pushing paper in the private sector.
Also, there was this ratchet effect in that they would want to compare with other similar entities in high income areas, and would average up. However, as you moved up the management ranks, the private sector pay was higher. Which is one reason why the public sector is so poorly managed.
That struck me immediately also.
Oh gee so they are gong to comission a phoeny study to come up with the result they want?I feel so much better!NOT
Of course. You do research to prove things, not to find answers to questions.
/s
“Cities, counties, water districts typically had 40% more in total compensation.”
That’s likely the effect of public sector unions. In our state (NC), teacher unions insist that our teachers get paid at least the national average even though due to cost of living differences, average worker earnings are below the national average. For a below-average income state to support teacher pay levels that match the national teacher average obviously implies a higher tax burden than elsewhere.
In short, if typical workers are paid 10% less than their counterparts nationally, then teachers should be likewise satisfied with being paid 10% below average for their profession. Needless to say, teachers don’t see it that way at all; instead they always point to that “pay gap.”
I wish Obama would show equal fervor about exploding the myth of the female wage gap. On an apples-to-apples basis that accounts for experience and type of employment, there is no gap, but that doesn’t stop feminazis from constantly complaining that women are paid only 79% as much as men.
http://www.businessweek.com/careers/managementiq/archives/2008/11/the_gender_pay.html
Women take time off to have babies (thereby reducing their average experience relative to men of the same age) and they also self-select into professions that give them greater workday flexibility. Such professions tend to be lower paid than others requiring long dedicated work hours. As a consequence the average FT female worker does earn less than the average FT male worker, but that’s not equivalent to saying they don’t earn equal pay for equal work. If we took that principle literally, then doctors should earn the same hourly rate as garbage collectors.
If we took that principle literally, then doctors should earn the same hourly rate as garbage collectors.
Shhhhhhhhhhhhh! You know that’s coming.
The fascists do take this literally. The Equal Pay movement only began with women. In the universities, it morphs into strikes for higher pay for graduate assistants, usually linked, through a union, to a rise in the wage of the service staff.
At some point, this can only be accomplished by mandating a pay cut in the professional positions, both as a source of revenue to redistribute and as a way to bring both ends of the spectrum closer together.
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