Starting Salaries for Fed Workers Higher Than They Have Been in Years

[Cowboy]

Well here is one thing Obama has accomplished in the last couple of years. Only good news for those that work for the government though, talk about job security.


Remember when the Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Moore wrote that we have “become a nation of takers” as opposed to a “nation of makers”?
What did he mean by that?
“More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined,” Moore wrote back April. “Nearly half of the $2.2 trillion cost of state and local governments is the $1 trillion-a-year tab for pay and benefits of state and local employees.”
Therefore, it comes as no surprise that so many states and cities cannot pay their bills, Moore concluded.

Eight months later, it appears that his analysis may have been spot-on correct.
“Federal pay rose an average of 1.3 percent for the budget year that ended Sept. 30, according to newly released federal data,” USA Today reports.
By comparison, the wages of private workers rose 1.2 percent during the period, the same rate as state and local government pay growth, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.
Translation: now is a great time to be a Federal worker.
“Federal workers made an average $75,296 in pay last year, plus $28,323 in medical, pension and other benefits,” a USA Today analysis found.
“That’s about 60 percent more than the average private wage, a difference explained largely by higher education levels and more professional jobs in the federal workforce,” the report adds.

Many would find it odd that, during this time of economic instability, Federal compensation has soared in the past five years. Add to that the fact that the federal government in recent years has hired “several hundred thousand new employees, including many well-paid lawyers and doctors.”​

​

With several recent job openings and a constantly swelling payroll, is it any wonder that the world of federal employment had become the “go-to place” for so many young people?
Consider these facts (via USA Today):
PAY:

• A 20-to 24-year-old auto mechanic started at an average of $46,427 this year, up from $36,750 five years ago. The government hires about 400 full-time auto mechanics a year.
• A 30- to 34-year-old lawyer started at an average of $101,045 this year, up from $79,177 five years ago. The government hires about 2,500 lawyers a year.
• The portion of federal workers earning $100,000 or more grew from 12 percent in 2006 to 22 percent in 2011.
• A mechanical engineer, age 25 to 29, started at $63,675, up from $51,746 in 2006. The government hires about 600 mechanical engineers a year.

JOB SECURITY

• The rate of quitting has fallen 29 percent since 2007.
• Ordinary retirements are down 11 percent.
• Early retirements are down two-thirds.
• Disability departures have dropped one-third

NEAR IMPOSSIBLE TO GET FIRED:

• Under the Obama administration, layoffs from reorganizations have dropped by two-thirds to fewer than 300 a year in the 2.1 million person workforce.
• Workers are 13 times more likely to die of natural causes than get laid off from the federal government.

What’s the justification for these pay raises? There must be some sort of explanation.
“The government is classifying more new hires — secretaries, mail clerks, chaplains, laundry workers, electrical engineers and wildlife biologists — as taking more demanding versions of their jobs and deserving more pay [emphasis added],” USA Today reports.
Apparently, the pay rates and the increases are supposed to reflect the fact that a federal cook, clerk, laundry worker, and wildlife biologist all have jobs that are “more challenging” than their private sector counterparts.
Shouldn’t the people cutting the paychecks be the ones to decide that?
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/sta...-workers-higher-than-they-have-been-in-years/

 

[Danang Sailor]

“Federal workers made an average $75,296 in pay last year, plus $28,323 in medical, pension and other benefits,”

This is, to be charitable, an outrageous example of "mutant statistics". The only way to get these numbers involves
averaging out some numbers and completely excluding others. The typical federal worker is a GS-5, Step 4, a person
who makes an annual salary of $30,173, plus benefits. Yes, there is a good retirement plan and a very good medical
plan - to both of which the employee must contribute, by the way - but as you can see, no one is getting rich at these rates.

Tossing around figures as USA Today has done does a massive disservice to federal workers, most of whom are
dedicated, doing the best job they can and earning every penny they're paid. The way you arrive at a figure such as
the one in the USA piece is to "cherry pick" pay grades and locations; if I wanted to generate numbers implying federal
workers are "overpaid" in comparison to the civilian workforce, I could do it, without lying, by using figures
from a place like the DC metro area, and I'd include salaries for such federal jobs as, say, Congress and the Presidency.
By doing that I could present 'honest' figures almost guaranteed to irritate the majority and give the impression
the federal workforce is overpaid, and still not show a true picture of what the typical worker actually receives. Oh,
and I'd also "neglect" to mention that the typical federal worker didn't get a pay increase in 2011 and won't get one in 2012
either, as their pay was frozen by law at the 2010 rates. Come to think of it, I didn't notice that tidbit in the USA Today
piece. The whole thing smacks of Yellow Journalism.

Could it be that the theories about the MSM being lapdogs for the liberals in government are true?





P.S. I scribbled this because I'm terribly tired of hearing "how much" federal workers are paid.
The fact is, most of their spouses also have to work in order for the family to avoid bankruptcy
... and they still do more than they're paid for. The overpaid, lazy ones are the exception, and
the majority seem to cluster around the Potomac.

P.P.S. Yes, I am "sucking at the federal tit" as some like to call it, and I won't apologize for that fact.
After 22 years of military service and another 20 providing support to those still on active duty,
while losing a few body parts in the process, I truly feel I've earned the pittance I receive each month.