I understand that frustration for sure, but I also know that they work for significantly less money than the rest of American Workers. Most work for 40,000 dollars a year if they are lucky. Plus the government pensions have changed significantly since the late 80’s. For example, if you started working in 1989, you only receive one percent per year towards your retirement check. What I mean is that if you work 25 years, you will receive 25 percent of your final pay check for life. It used to be 2 percent so if you completed 25 years of servive you received 50 percent for life. However they also put money into Thrift Savings which is sorta a 401K. Also they pay for medical costs now more than ever. It really is not as great as it sounds anymore. I really don’t think any job is great anymore come to think of it....lol.
“I understand that frustration for sure, but I also know that they work for significantly less money than the rest of American Workers. “
Not so sure about that one. I saw a report recently (apologies for no citation) that showed avg govt. e/ee comp + benies on par w/ private sector comp/benies. The problem that a lot of private sector people have with this is that, in most cases, the government jobs are essentially “entitlements” to which the public employees are guaranteed.
Meanwhile, the private sector is watching an ever increasing portion of thier income stolen by government in the form of higher taxes that are being used to hire more government workers or pay the lavish benefits (current and retirement) for this over-bloated bureaucracy. The private secors is getting laid-off in droves while the federal govt is adding to its payroll.
My brother-in-law is a govt employee (civillian, military engineer) who makes over $90K per year and has somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 weeks paid vacation time, huge health benefits and still gets to log overtime despite his base salary. He also gets to participate in the government version of the 401K retirement plan (the ones the politicians designed for themselves...) which includes a huge matching percentage by Uncle Sam. His job is about as cushy as they get.
That said, as compared to the private sector, federal pay scales are compressed at the top. The feds pay well at the worker bee and middle managment levels but poorly for senior management. The tradeoff for managers, of course, is job security. This contributes to a very insular institutional culture, as most government managers are promoted from within. At senior levels they are pretty sharp people but they are products of the system and resistant to change.
You are correct that the federal pension system has been reformed. Older workers retiring today are still retiring on the old system, but since the mid 80's new hires have been in the new system, which pays a basic pension of 1% of the average of your high three years of salary. If your final three years averaged $100,000 (which a GS 12 can earn today) and you have 30 years service, your basic pension would be $30,000. That is supplemented by the thrift savings plan, which operates like a 401(k).
Many state and local pension systems are unreformed and are still way out of line with private sector norms.
>>I understand that frustration for sure, but I also know that they work for significantly less money than the rest of American Workers.
While there is no doubt that this was once the case, it is no longer a given.
Do you have any data to back up this claim; because the latest I read was the government wages are 60% higher than their private sector counterparts. And that was not counting benefits.
That fact seems to be in line with the wage disparity I see between public and private sector jobs I see in the want-ads.