Posted on 11/10/2015 9:40:44 AM PST by Alfred O. Bama
Salaries of federal employees continue to lag behind those of similar private-sector jobs by 35 percent on average, an advisory committee has said in presenting what amounts to the latest data point in a long-running debate over how the two sectors compare.
The 34.92 percent "pay gap" reported Friday essentially duplicates the 35.37 and 35.28 percent numbers reported the last two years by the Federal Salary Council and is close to those of other recent years....
Under a 1990 law, the numbers are supposed to be used to virtually close the measured differences with private-sector pay. However, no administration or Congress since then has supported providing the funds to do that....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Nobody makes a million dollars a year in the federal government.....Nobody in Federal government produces anything. Next question? Newbie.
Those rates do look pretty low for the level of education and skills required for jobs in the double-digit-GS-level range, yes.
Pretty much everywhere
That pretty much confirms it right there. They simply could not get doctors, flight controllers, and other high-skill jobs at government salaries, so they had to sweeten the deal.
GFY.
I take it for this that you are a government “worker” in an agency you know perfectly well to be unconstitutional. I understand the anger ... constitutionalism is a direct threat to people like that.
The federal pay scale is highly compressed. The feds pay very well at worker bee and mid-management levels, but the senior executives earn less than their private sector counterparts. There are not too many people in the private sector running five and ten billion dollar operations and making $180,000 a year, but it is common in government. (The offset is of course unmatched job security and a great retirement.) In the private sector, tenure at the top is often very short. Firings, reorganizations, downsizings, corporate acquisitions, etc. are ever present realities. The feds are insulated from most of this churning.
The real metric to watch is quit rates. There IS movement in and out of the leviathan. Most of my career has been in the private sector, but I have been through the revolving door twice, leaving for more pay each time. (I also have a low threshold for boredom and am usually ready to leave a job by the time I get it figured out.) I know many other people who have done the same. By the time you get to branch chief and SES levels, a lot of the federales are pretty sharp and have no difficulty in moving if they wish. But there are always risks involved with a job change. The risk averse tend to sit tight, and they find government an ideal home. They live in places like Annandale, McLean, and Falls Church in solidly upper middle class bedroom communities, and they live very well. I don't fault people who make that choice, as long as they don't complain about being underpaid. And most of them don't. They know they have a good deal. They have sacrificed salary for security, but that is their choice.
It is very hard to get an honest comparison of federal and private sector pay, both because of the differences in job security and benefits, and because of the tendency towards over-classification and padding of job descriptions in the OPM system. But that's a story for another day.
I work for the G, and have in the past: USMC 1981-1985, civilian employee at D of Navy, 1986-1989, and my current agency Nov 22, 2010 until present.
My take: we ARE vastly overpaid. We do little work, and virtually ZERO productive work that benefits America. The work I do now, as opposed to my time at D of Navy, it wholly, entirely, and completely unconstitutional. All we do all day, every day, is hand out money to people who shovel it into flaming pits. It is almost impossible to fire us, we get step increases every year, and fabulous benefits. Though true pensions largely disappeared in 1984, if I recall correctly.
How do you know we are overpaid? The turnover rate in the G is incredibly, infinitesimally small; no sane person ever leaves the G, ESPECIALLY in the kenyan economy.
This is BS, but will be used as a reason to raise taxes.
New York State Employees have so litle to do they joke how they spend 2 hours in the bathroom reading papers.
Honesty would begin with including the 94 million unemployed in the private sector as a result of decades of insane state and local regulations and fees against building, small manufacturing, etc. Many offices should be closed.
When one figures in the benefits, retirement, days off, holidays, vacations, and hours worked, Federal salaries are far above their counterparts.
Knock me over with a feather! a federal agency opines that federal employees aren’t paid enough.
https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2015/09/25/2015-24416/federal-salary-council-meeting-notice
If this was true, they’d all quit; but then they’d actually be held accountable for thier time and results.
Your ignoring step i ceases. And not providing comparable work/experience. Have you compared the GS-6 to the comparable SCA?
My consulting company did lots of salary surveys in the 90’s and at that time the Federal Employees were getting 120% in total compensation more than the same job in the private sector. Now it is more like 140%. Secondly they work 60% less, and can’t be fired. then there is the issue of make sure you spend all of the budget so they won’t cut us back.
Nobody forces anyone to work for the federal government
I can give you one data point ... my own.
I left a senior level engineering job with a leading defense contractor 5 years ago to join the DoD. They matched my salary and vacation but govt holidays amount to 10 extra days per year, that was a net for me. All other benefits were comparable.
Once Obie was elected he placed a freeze on the yearly cost of living increases. If I was still at the contractor, I would have gotten at least a percent or two each year. So in terms of pay, I'm slightly behind my private sector counterparts, but the amount is very small ... a few percent. Nothing like the 35% in the article ... that is no way accurate.
Most engineers and scientists that come to the govt come for the work ...
And here is the attitude of our federal overlords towards those who pay their salary. Private industry got rid of secretaries for all except the top level executives years ago. Most managers in the real world can type their own memos in the computer age. But I guess federal workers need that time to troll FR.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.