Posted on 11/01/2010 7:14:07 AM PDT by Poundstone
Official numbers released by the government late last week show salaries of federal workers falling slightly farther behind their private-sector counterparts in the last year, by an average of 2.1 percent across the country.
The disparity shows wide variations among the 31 regions where the government compares federal pay with salaries for private-sector jobs in order to determine pay raises. The Washington-Baltimore area, for example, showed among the largest gaps, with federal workers 38 percent behind the private sector.
(Excerpt) Read more at voices.washingtonpost.com ...
Its been my experience that Federal workers get better COLAs and Admin days off with a Republican administration... but I still can’t beat getting 2.5 weeks off, paid, when they shut government down in the 90s. SWEET!
James Sherk is with the Heritage Foundation. So we’ve obviously got a pre-biased study here.
How about we fire them all and they get zero?
It’s all about supply and demand folks. When I left the military after eight years and went into the private sector, I took a significant pay cut. There were personal reasons but I didn’t have any regrets except that I love the military life-and still do. When I left the private sector and went into the public sector I took another significant pay and benefit cut. That was when IT jobs were in high demand and plentiful.
Over the years I have seen this shift back and forth as we entered into boom and bust cycles. I don’t hear a lot of complaining over military salaries which can be significant with base pay, housing allowances, clothing allowances, hazardous duty pay, etc. Would anyone here claim that the military makes too much money? They, after all, makes more than feds.
We shouldn’t be envious of the feds who have jobs. We certainly wouldn’t complain about the military making what they make. We should be mad at the government for not helping the private sector create jobs.
Very well put, Harley D!
“I should note that the difficult thing in analyzing federal compensation is comparing apples to apples. Most studies that assert federal employees are overpaid compare apples to oranges, i.e, they include blue collar workers, burger flippers, and their ilk in their comparison. Few of those types work for the federal government.”
The difference is “burger flippers and their ilk” are paid via voluntary exchange. No one puts a gun to your head and forces you to buy a burger. Every dollar that a government worker is paid is stolen from someone else.
The checkout lady at the local grocery store doesn’t make as much as an IT professional either — it doesn’t mean they are underpaid.
Yes, there aren’t many really productive, contributing workers in the federal government to compare to the typical blue-collar private-sector workers.
If you assume that every doctor and every nurse has identical skills, and should be paid identically, then that comparison might be valid.
Who knows how many doctors at VA are there because they love their country and want to serve the vets, and how many are there because it's a lot easier job to get than a private-sector job where you have to prove yourself to make the big money.
On the other hand, the salary range for current job openings at VA averages $147,000, and has a high of over $200,000.
Meanwhile, a physician in a private practice might not be clearing nearly that much, because of overhead, regulations, malpractice insurance, and having to handle medicare and medicaid patients at a loss. There is a great advantage to having a salaried job that you can't lose.
In the private sector, doctors are merging practices, working longer hours, and struggling to make a profit, and Obamacare is just going to make it worse.
http://www.pensiontsunami.com/public.php
I'll say.
We’ll know that we’ve cut federal worker’s salaries enough when the feds actually have to beg people not to quit.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Damn straight! Poundstone posts these threads poor-mouthing fed govt employees while all the while knowing it's a gravy train.
Here's a direct quote from Poundstone on another thread:
"There are some very good reasons to make government a career. It certainly worked for me!"
YOU LIE!!!
What’s wrong with that quote? I certainly enjoyed my government career and got a lot out of it. I didn’t say I got rich — there are other ways to get satisfaction out of a job.
I think too many of my fellow Freepers have too much time on their hands and work themselves up into a lather for no good reason.
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