Federal workers earning double their private counterparts

[futurebeachbum]

From USAToday "Federal workers earning double their private counterparts".

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.

Cutting this back seems like the obvious place to tackle deficit reduction.

I put myself and my employees through significant wage and benefits cuts (and some layoffs dammit) to help the business survive.

Government employees should be willing to make similar sacrifices for their employer.

 

[scooterbug44]

I'd love to see a more long term graph or one comparing apples and apples.

This seems to go against the idea I had that private sector is more lucrative than public for the same job.

My guess is health care and pension account for a good portion of it.

 

[Here4Good]

I wonder what happens when you break that down by department: DOD, DOE, Senate, USPS, FAA, etc.

Interesting. Certainly was not the case when I was a contractor at the CDC, lo these many moons ago. It was all about the benefits of being a federal government employee at the time. Of course, since benefits are an endangered species in the private sector, that may have a lot to do with this graph.

If you look at all jobs, fully loaded, you will not find many part-time, non-benefit producing jobs in govt.

 

[futurebeachbum]

I'd love to see a more long term graph or one comparing apples and apples.

This seems to go against the idea I had that private sector is more lucrative than public for the same job.

My guess is health care and pension account for a good portion of it.

Pensions/401k/etc.. are included in the benefits portions of the graphs above.

In the 'Old Days' government jobs paid less, but had better benefits and retirement.

Now, that is all still true except that the government jobs also pay more. Looks like everyone should work for the government.