Avg Fed Gov Worker earns double Avg Private Worker

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At a time when workers in the private sector are happy to even have a job, federal government employees are enjoying a level of pay and benefits double that seen in the private sector.

At a time when workers' pay and benefits have stagnated, federal employees' average compensation has grown to more than double what private sector workers earn, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

Federal workers have been awarded bigger average pay and benefit increases than private employees for nine years in a row. The compensation gap between federal and private workers has doubled in the past decade.

Federal civil servants earned average pay and benefits of $123,049 in 2009 while private workers made $61,051 in total compensation, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The data are the latest available.

The federal compensation advantage has grown from $30,415 in 2000 to $61,998 last year.

•Benefits. Federal workers received average benefits worth $41,791 in 2009. Most of this was the government's contribution to pensions. Employees contributed an additional $10,569.

•Pay. The average federal salary has grown 33% faster than inflation since 2000. USA TODAY reported in March that the federal government pays an average of 20% more than private firms for comparable occupations. The analysis did not consider differences in experience and education.

•Total compensation. Federal compensation has grown 36.9% since 2000 after adjusting for inflation, compared with 8.8% for private workers.​

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/income/2010-08-10-1Afedpay10_ST_N.htm
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Want to cut the deficit? Just canceling Obama's proposed 1.4% across the board pay hike for the 2 million federal workers would save over 2 billion dollars. Imagine how much cutting their pay down to that of their private sector counterparts would save.

 

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I don't begrudge them their pay, it's one of the last places in the US one can get a fair wage and a proper pension. Thanks in no small part to their union. I say hire more federal workers to help relieve the unemployment problem.

 

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I think it is an excellent idea! There is no reason federal workers should be so over paid in comparison to those that are paying their wages. And I think they need to go a bit further and start brining federal retirement benefits into line with the private sector.

 

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It's retarted, like so many other Fascist ideas.

 

What would that do to the economy ?

 

Current federal employees should not get Cost of Living Adjustments either in their pensions.

 

Oh, you mean eliminating them entirely?

 

I don't disagree with you very often but I disagree here.

I understand your position in one respect but looking at the big picture I have some questions that you could answer to either strengthen your position or strengthen mine.

Are we or are we not heading to a plutocracy ?

Who are these people at the top, the 1 or 2% ?

What is the reason for the growing separation of rich and poor ?

What is the condition of retirement plans for most private sector workers ?

Do you feel that it is more valuable or less valuable to our economy to have a strong middle class ?

 

Nationalize Wal Mart and MacDonald's, have the Fed own all the temp agencies and janitorial services, and your problem disappears.

Or just compare comparable jobs - CEO of the US with CEO of United Health Services, say. Head of FEMA with Exxon VP in charge of safety and emergency response.

On the other hand, you could make it look worse - compare median rather than "average" yearly compensation, and break down the "benefits" by type.

There's no way more than half the jobs in the US pay more than 50 grand a year. (That's $25 dollars an hour on a forty hour week, two weeks off - the average work week was IIRC 36 hours, last I heard, which was up from last year.)

And most private jobs don't carry anything like comparable health insurance.

So you could headline the low wages and lack of health insurance the Reagan economic era has produced, and how generous the government provisions,

which were mostly set to match the lower normal private compensation (job security and the like expected to make up the difference) back before Reagan's enactments,

are by contrast.

Go for it.

 

Been a while since I've said this, but I agree with you 100%.

 

Definately, in fact we are already there.

I am not sure how that is relevant to this discussion. The top 1 or 2 percent are industrialist, financiers, and the inherited wealthy those that own more than half the productive assets of the land.

The reason for the growing seperation between the rich, poor and middle classes is, in my opinion, the control the wealthy are able to exercise over the elected officials of our government.

I think federal workers should get the same benefits the average Joe or Jane gets and conversely the average Jane or Joe should get the same level of benefits federal workers enjoy. And that is not the case today. So if the average Joe or Jane is not entitled to a Cost of Living adjustment to his/her retirement, why should federal workers be entitled to same?

What needs to happen is we need to get back to the place were benefits between private industry and federal government are commensurate. Unfortunately what has happened over the course of the last twenty years is that the air has been taken out of the tires of the American middle class. And that is not right and it is not fair.

I think most private retirement plans are in shambles. People were told to invest in the stock markets and they got taken to the market and slaughtered for a variety of reasons. And I think what has happened to private sector retirement plans over the course of the last twenty years is frankly criminal. But unfortunately it is not.

I feel is is required that in order to have a healthy nation, we need a healthy middle class. And we should all have an equal opportunity to acquire wealth. There should not be disparities in compensation between federal or government workers and the people who pay the salaries of federal workers. All of us should have the same opportunities.

 

what average are the using? mean or median(I doubt they are using the mode) secondly the government tends to hire a lot of specialists more so than the private sector which is going to cause the average to be higher. before you bitch and moan about shouldn't you try and find out why it higher rather than just assuming something?

 

Jesus, read your own link Madman:

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 data are not useful for a direct public-private pay comparison," says Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union.​

 

Joepistole,

I agree, but it's gonna get worse. Thus the need to strengthen the middle class.

Because they also control the potential wages, benefits and retirement plans of all those downstream that are not on the government payroll.

They have bit by bit taken away from the worker to pad their wealth.

Instead of asking the federal worker to take what the private sector is supplying, ask the private sector to bring up the standards.

I am not suggesting that they meet the federal standard and I agree that bringing them more in line will create more stability. But bringing one section of the middle class way down is not going to help.

Agreed, but then you say

So what you're saying is that the 1 to 2% should have more power over the middle class and that all the Govt workers should take less, separating the rich and poor to a greater degree.

Do you understand where I am coming from.

I don't disagree with this part, I am only saying that without the private sector improving their standards all you are saying is that the Govt worker is overpaid.

Exactly. So why would we want to take a giant swath of the middle classs and do that to them.

Ideally yes, I agree. The reality is that the only way I see us maintaining a strong middle class and create this equality is to have the private sector improve their standards.

Also realistically and maybe I am mis-understanding you somewhat. But I can see reducing the federal standards to some degree as long as the private sector improved in order to not water down the middle class. Which is my main point.

I also realize that the pensions and plans may not be sustainable but that is a different question.

However, the stability created by these solid retirement plans for the individuals allows them to have money to spend, and that has far reaching affects in a postive way. So taking more money away from the middle class IMO is not a good way to address this issue.

There is a huge problem in the US that was created by our own success and now, Govt jobs are one of the few places where a decent standard of living and retirement stability can be found.

 

wanna get really pissed look at what a CEOs of major companies pention and benifits are its fucking rediculous

 

Considering a vital question

Those are the sorts of details that our neighbor thinks create a bewildering fog that obscures the truth.

But, to consider your initial point in this thread, I find myself wondering if the disparity is a result of government excess or private greed. Private sector real wages have not kept up with the cost of living, so that the executives can have more for themselves. Remember that our neighbor is a business owner who would blame any troubles he might have on others, like Obama, instead of looking to his own practices.

We should not be surprised, then, at his disdain toward workers.

 

As far as anyone can tell they are, in wages anyway.

All you learn from the OP is that the government probably doesn't have many unskilled, low level, temp, and illegal immigrant dominated jobs, or large employment centers in low wage geographical areas.

And that whoever is compiling these stats doesn't have the sense to look at a number like 53,000 dollars for the the "average" yearly wage and realize there is something amiss with the whole essay.

 

Mad, I can't recall you complaining about the private contractors getting paid 3 times more than enlisted soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

Yes I understand your position. But over paying government workers is like paying 17K for a hammer. Government should spend its money wisely. The tax payer is entitled to the biggest bang for their buck.

One of the many problems in Washington is that has not happened on the labor end nor the corporate end of the deal. The US taxpayer has been turned into the biggest sap in town. That needs to stop.

And given the level of debt and continuing deficits the nation now faces - we need to spend what money we have wisely. We need to do something radical. We need to reinvest in The United States. For the last couple of decades investors have been moving investment overseas where labor is cheap and where they do not need to follow environmental regulations.

In order to restore the middle class, we need to do two very big and important things. We need to free up all the money that is going to special interests (e.g. healthcare) so that we can bring our heatlhcare costs into line with competing nations. We cannot continue to spend double what everyone else spends for healthcare....as much as mad and other industry beneficaries want...it is just not sustainable.

And I don't think we are going to be able to free Washington of special interests and lobbyist money until we ammend the Constitution and make campaigns publicly funded. That would go along way get us back talkiing about the issues rationally.

Additionally, we need to eliminate our dependency on foriegn oil. That would cut our trade deficits in half and in the process it would create thousands if not millions of good paying jobs if we used our own energy resources (natural gas) to run our autos and trucks. We don't need new technology...we already have it and have had for some decades. We just need to stop lining the pockets of special interests at the expense of the middle class and the health of the nation.

 

I saw a Heritage guy basically make the same pitch.

It didn't hold water with me then, doesn't now. He focused on the Feds, though. Those positions are disproportionately in urban centers, which partly attributes to their higher salaries. The limited earning potential and salary caps also make this easier to accept.