Posted on 05/19/2006 4:25:10 PM PDT by lauriehelds
The pay gap between private and public sector employees seems to be a given. Just this week, 10 congressmen made their case for a higher 2007 civilian pay raise than President Bush has requested by citing a 30 percent private-public gap reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"The federal government may never be able to compete with the private sector, dollar for dollar, but we must ensure that we do not fall further behind in the battle for talent," Reps. Tom Davis, R-Va.; Jon Porter, R-Nev.; Steny Hoyer, D-Md.; Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and others said in a letter to fellow members.
But a new paper from the libertarian Washington-based think tank the Cato Institute argues that the pay gap actually travels in the other direction. Pointedly titled "Federal Pay Outpaces Private-Sector Pay," the paper by Chris Edwards, the institute's director of tax policy studies, makes the case for freezing government salaries.
By bundling federal benefits -- including defined pensions, the Thrift Savings Plan and health care subsidies -- together with wages, Edwards calculated that the average federal worker earned $100,178 in 2004, compared to $51,876 in salary and benefits for the average private-sector worker. Those numbers were based on statistics from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
"The federal civilian workforce has become an elite island of secure and high-paid workers, separated from the ocean of private-sector American workers who must compete in today's dynamic economy," Edwards wrote.
In an interview, Edwards said he is trying to stir the pot on an issue that has no real adversaries. Federal employee unions are so vocal on pay issues, and Washington-area congressmen, including Republicans like Davis, who chairs the Government Reform Committee, are loyal to the many federally employed voters in their districts, Edwards said.
He said he suspects the BLS studies that find such a marked pay gap, and which do not take benefits into account, are flawed.
"There are questions about how these comparisons are done," Edwards said. "If you, say, look at a government lawyer versus a private lawyer, or accountants, the responsibilities and the hours worked per week can be quite radically different."
Most compelling, he argued, is the quit rate for federal employees, which is quite low and suggests that workers are satisfied with their pay.
Edwards said in his paper that some academic studies have found government workers to be overpaid, but his citation is a 1985 study by Steven Venti at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Why did he pull from a 20-year-old study? Because, he said, there has been so much agreement in recent years on the pay gap that no one has bothered to complete an updated independent analysis.
Even AlGore was into firing federal employees.
Good point--although we have been happy with the performance of the TSP. So, you were in CRCS and opted out to FERS? My husband stayed in CRCS; one of the last in the rank and file I would imagine.
well, from my observation of many years, many if not most of the kids sports teams coaches/scout leaders are federales (and thank God for them!) so they seem available most eves and weekends. I don't know who's SES, who's a govt lawyer, who has a business on the side, their grades, or any of that info ... just not the kind of questions I ask people. But they have to have pretty well-paying jobs to live as they do in this area. Many Colonels ask for a transfer out of here as soon as they settle in and find out how unaffordable the DC area is.
"Always seemed to me that the greatest part of the federal budget that got wasted was the one that paid off contractors."
You mean like Halliburton, Kellog, Brown and Root?
How dare you take a job for less money just because you love it!
"Even to you, although if my hubby just happens to save your home from a fire, goes on a search and rescue if you or your loved ones are hurt or lost in the backcountry, or if he responds to a vehicle accident and does his damndest to get your broken body to the hospital in time to save your life, you might want to actually consider not acting like a jerk"
Not to put too fine a point on it, but he is paid to do these things. Around here, we have a volunteer fire department, and a volunteer rescue squad.
There is no federal employees union, no wives griping about all the overtime, and certainly no less professionalism or capability to save lives. So you tell me, what was it you were whining about again?
You are at the public trough, lady. you need to appreciate what you've got before screaming for more - and you'll never have enough.
Federal employees are too often like spoiled children, and you prove the point.
Jerk, indeed!
BS. When I worked in the pentagon, you could tell who was a contractor, and who was a federal slug, by how fast they walked.
"We don't make big bucks in the federal government, I assure you. Believe me, the taxpayers are getting their money's worth!"
As a fellow Freeper, I would normally take you at your word. This time, though, Reagan's "Trust but veryify" dictum keeps ringing in my ears.
Would you please post images of your most recent paycheck, along with your pension statements, and most recent tax return, so we can see indeed if we are really getting our "money's worth!" Also please post the official job title and job description, and the equivalent job in the private sector, with its compensation, benefits included.
I ask because, in my experience and observation, most workers who are treated and compensated well and have virtually no chance of losing their jobs settle into a remarkably complacent state of self-importance. Their packages soon become, in their minds, entitlements. This is constantly reinforced because they are surrounded by like-motivated workers.
If you have a "public service" argument, I'd prefer not to hear it. Jobs done "for the common good," in my mind, are those on the front lines of our literal freedom, or for grindlingly low compensation. If your government profession lets you become a literal millionaire (factoring value of benefits) over your working life, you haven't really "sacrificed," have you?
With the exception of a few cops and some military people, EVERY government worker I've known or known of (yes, federal, state and local level) has gone into it because it was a sinecure, and a well-compensated one at that. In other words: Once in, it's almost impossible to get fired.
The bureaucracy that runs our government is bloated to slothful proportions. Those of us who work on the outside ... actually--literally, mind you--pay for all of you on the inside. We make things--goods or services. You make nothing. If your ranks were cut by ten percent tomorrow, the only notice of it would be your union heads pissing and moaning on TV, surely caterwauling about how "the public will be hurt" because the civil service ranks are being cut. (Oh, I would continue the cuts, 5-7% a year, for a decade.) And you are a lifetime drain, on both the populace and the Republic--your pensions and healthcare will enslave our great grandchildren.
I have always gotten two reactions from the parasite class when I propose "sunshining" the compensation they recieve: Stone silence (with hateful looks) or a demand to reveal MY compensation.
Sorry, I work in the private sector, and it's none of your damned business. But since I pay you, and you're my employee, I'd like you to prove what YOU said: "Believe me, the taxpayers are getting their money's worth!"
Waiting....
If you bought into the DC area 20 to 30 years ago, it's quite affordable. Right now it's too expensive for any colonel, and most generals!
Hardly. More like General Motors, AM General, Chrysler, Ford, EDS, and so forth.
Amazing ~ when I was at USPS you could discover who was the contractor by the degree of the whine.
Let's check out USPS ~ at it's founding they handled about 35 billion pieces of mail per year. They now handle almost 7X as many pieces of mail. Even though the number of addresses served has more than doubled, they have about the same number of employees now that they had then.
Find a private sector activity that's improved its basic efficiency 15 fold in the same period of time.
If you'd ever bothered to really look into the federal compensation system you would have already known that.
"Find a private sector activity that's improved its basic efficiency 15 fold in the same period of time.'
Fedex, UPS, McDonald's, Microsoft....
Get real. None of the companies you named are anywhere near a 15X improvement in productivity.
How would you know if the taxpayers are getting their money's worth? You've never worked a day in your life in the private sector.
In fact, most govt. workers are grossly overpaid and over bennied for what they do.
Did someone have a laser transit?
How can you tell the postal worker moved?
Oh, I know - the flag is at half staff.
I think I'll call my buddies still on the job and tell them that it's "No more stamps for Patton".
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