Workers in the federal government now earn, on average, double what private-sector workers make, according to a USA Today study released Aug. 10. "Federal civil servants earned average pay and benefits of $123,049 in 2009 while private workers made $61,051 in total compensation," the paper said. "Public employee unions say the compensation gap reflects the increasingly high level of skill and education required for most federal jobs and the government contracting out lower-paid jobs to the private sector in recent years." The report was based on numbers from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis. The federal pay and benefits also...
