In the DC area a GS 13 isn’t all that high a grade.
That's grade inflation for you. True, what gets you a GS-5 in Kansas will get you a GS-11 in DC.
A GS-13 (step 8 or so) will get you around $110K. Not bad for a HS diploma and limited skills (as in the specific example I mentioned)
Median public sector pay long ago left median private sector pay in the dust. Yet the canard that government workers deserve heavy benefits and lavish pensions because they don't make as much as those in the private sector continues to be trotted out as if it were an obvious truth.
Bunk. Just look at the graphics above that Chris Edwards of Cato found in a new round of official data for federal employees.
The second graphic shows total compensation for federal employees is now double that of private sector workers.
What makes this particularly amazing to me is that this has happened even though federal employee unions aren't seen as having all that much clout in Washington D.C. Somehow, they're doing even better than state and local government workers in places like public employee union-controlled California. Hat tip to wonderful PensionTsunami.com.