Federal Workers Overpaid?!

[classicman]

WASHINGTON - When it comes to pay, federal workers receive benefits that averaged about $41,791 in 2009. When you factor in salaries and those benefits, which include pensions, federal civil servants earned about $123,049 in 2009.

By comparison, private workers made $61,051 in total compensation, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, tells USA TODAY the data are not useful in a direct public to private pay comparison.

Public union employees say the gap reflects the growing skill and education levels needed for most federal jobs, while the government farms out lower paid jobs to the private sector.

A budget analyst at the Cato Institute believes federal workers are overpaid.

Link

Wow - Personally very few of the Gov't workers I've ever dealt with are worth as much as - let alone more than those in the private sector.

[Happy Monkey]

The fine folks at Cato and their allies work for decades to bust unions and roll back benefits in the private sector. They attack government budgets, causing lower-paid government employees to be changed into even lower-paid and much lower-benefited private sector employees. I guess that complaining about the wage discrepancies is the logical next step.

The people who decided to pay the private sector so much lower and eliminate their pensions make many times the maximum federal salary.

[classicman]

I know that the highest paid in the private sector make more than the highest paid public, but still. . . Once averaged out one would think the private sector would be twice that of the public. Not the other way around.

[HungLikeJesus]

Are you talking about two people doing essentially identical jobs, or a disparate collection of workers?

[classicman]

you have as much info as I.

My last post was in reference to my personal experience.

[Happy Monkey]

The calculation would be very different if apples were compared with apples, as Kelley pointed out in your quote. For one thing, the private sector includes the full spectrum of the economy, while government is primarily white collar, especially after outsourcing. When a big company outsources its janitorial staff, those employees are still in the private sector calculation. When a government entity does the same, those employees move from government to private sector, which increases the government salary average and decreases the private sector average.

[HungLikeJesus]

From an article by the Reason Foundation (which popped up during a search of "public sector vs private sector wages"):

But according to a new study published by the Center for State & Local Government Excellence and the National Institute on Retirement Security, these aggregate compensation comparisons are misleading. The authors, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee economics professors Keith A. Bender and John S. Heywood, assert that state and local government workers are better educated and have more work experience, on average, than do private sector workers, so it is natural that their overall average compensation would be higher. "Thus," they conclude, "the fact that public sector workers receive greater average compensation than private sector workers should be no more surprising than the fact that those with more skills and education earn more."
Furthermore, after attempting to control for such variables, they find that state and local government workers actually earn less than their private sector counterparts. According to the analysis, state government workers earn an average of 11.4 percent less than private-sector workers of similar education and work experience and local government workers earn 12.0 percent less. Due to the greater benefits received by public sector workers, the gap narrows when these benefits are factored in, to 6.8 percent and 7.4 percent, respectively. (Even this appears to underestimate the cost of the benefits provided government workers, as discussed below.)

[spudcon]

Keep trying to rationalize government excess. The fact is government employment has been growing, and private sector employment is shrinking. Private sector business don't print their own money, and most don't count on taxpayers to support their failures. I don't mind paying professionals a reasonable wage, no matter if private or public. The problem is overpaying too many employees too much money for too few hours.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by spudcon

The problem is overpaying too many employees too much money for too few hours.

Overpaying by whose definition?

[ZenGum]

Spud's, of course.

Okay, everyone, wheel out your pre-conceived misconceptions, trumpet them loudly, filter all other posts through the confirmation bias that has served you so well these past decades, ignore evidence to the contrary. Your flame war begins on post 17.

[Shawnee123]

HEEEEEEEEEE!

[classicman]

I'll just post this here to get that much closer to post #17...

Yeh I'm impatient.

[oldtimer]

I worked for federal government for 52 years and just retired because of health conditions.
When I started my annual pay was 2450 per year in 1954. The average factory worker was making 100 per week,or 2.50 per hr,twice my starting salary.
I worked my way up to a system analyst position as a gs 14 .My last salary was 120K.
My pension is 9K a month.
For about 30 years my salary was under most union manufacturing wages. Since the republicans (Reagan) managed to destroy the unions and send manufacturing to slave labor countries ,I am now overpaid.
A professional with two master degrees didn't make as much as a autoworker with no education. So I stayed for the pension.and as things turned out,I'm glad I did .
BTW - one reason these stats are skewed is because all the menial jobs are now handled by private contractors thereby raising the average for real gs employees .

[xoxoxoBruce]

Welcome to the Cellar, oldtimer.
With a 9k pension, you shouldn't have a problem paying your bills.

[Undertoad]

The tip mug is right down there.