I’m sure I sound like a broken record, but how long can we sustain this?
USA Today reported:
Accountants, nurses, chemists, surveyors, cooks, clerks and janitors are among the wide range of jobs that get paid more on average in the federal government than in the private sector.
Overall, federal workers earned an average salary of $67,691 in 2008 for occupations that exist both in government and the private sector, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The average pay for the same mix of jobs in the private sector was $60,046 in 2008, the most recent data available.
These salary figures do not include the value of health, pension and other benefits, which averaged $40,785 per federal employee in 2008 vs. $9,882 per private worker, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Federal pay has become a hot political issue in recent months because of concerns over the federal budget deficit and recession-battered wages in the private sector.
Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., made federal pay an issue in his successful campaign to fill Edward Kennedy‘s seat and is fighting for a pay freeze.
The federal government spends about $125 billion annually on compensation for about 2 million civilian employees.
“The data flip the conventional wisdom on its head,” says Cato Institute budget analyst Chris Edwards, a critic of federal pay policy. “Federal workers make substantially more than private workers, not less, in addition to having a large advantage in benefits.”
A pay freeze is a good start. But what about having those employees contribute to their pension and medical plans the way we do in the private sector? Is that too much to ask?
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