Comments on: 20% Federal Workers Make Over $100K

By: pagar

pagar — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 12:18:17 +0000

“Exclusive: IRS hires “hundreds” for new wealth unit”

My guess is that none of these New Hires lean conservative, that none of them will ever again have to worry about losing their job, and that a whole lot of the positions pay very well.

Meanwhile, we have a Sec of the Treasury that couldn’t figure out how to file his taxes correctly.

By: Right of the People

Right of the People — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:59:01 +0000

Trust me, the bennies are not as great as everyone thinks. The medical plan is expensive and not nearly as good as a lot of large companies. You would think that the buying power the fed has it should be the best but each agency negotiates their own policy with the insurance companies. My deductible is 500 bucks a person per year and the monthly payments for just myself and my wife (no kids) are over 200 a pay (about 425 a month). You start with only 2 weeks a year vacation and it takes 3 years to get to 3 weeks which is a bit quicker than some place who require 5 years to get 3. The sick time is good and we get the 10 holidays a year but a lot of companies do. Retirement is probably the best bennie of all I won’t lie about that but the pay is in many cases not nearly as good as the private sector. I’m in IT and I could make more out in the private sector in a lot of states but not in Vermont and I’m not leaving here so I keep working for the fed. Unfortunately, a lot of the federal employees are to use the old expression, teats on a boar hog, and a lot of the agencies are unnecessary like HUD and the IRS but the Border Patrol does a much needed job as does the military so I don’t feel like a drain on the country.

By: proreason

proreason — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:14:53 +0000

“if someone is actively employed in a position with the Federal Government for which they would be paid a similar salary in the private sector, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to compensate them accordingly.”

1. The benefits are wildly different. Pensions, sick time, holidays, work hours, work rules, etc.

2. Civil Service workers can’t be fired unless they call their boss the n-word.

3. A government worker’s “company” can never go out of business. Layoff’s are rare.

4. Civil Service salaries go up, no matter what happens. Definitely not true in private industry. (That doesn’t mean that everybody in the government is incompetant. But over a broad spectrum, the quality of worker is quaranteed to be lower than private industry.)

Government workers should make about 1/2 what private industry makes for equivalent qualifications, just based on those 4 things.

And in addition, because the government has to reflect society, hiring standards are lower. They have to be. If you don’t believe it, call the IRS for tax advice.

But instead of making 1/2, the government workers make nearly twice private industry.

Orwell lives.

By: joeblough

joeblough — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 23:24:18 +0000

So, we are to conclude that the “stimulus” program stimulated what?

By: BillK

BillK — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 04:57:02 +0000

Just to be fair about it – if someone is actively employed in a position with the Federal Government for which they would be paid a similar salary in the private sector, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to compensate them accordingly.

The problem is when their salary has ceased to have any relationship to the private sector thanks to collective bargaining agreements, mandated annual salary increases and the like.

• Pay hikes. Then-president Bush recommended — and Congress approved — across-the-board raises of 3% in January 2008 and 3.9% in January 2009. President Obama has recommended 2% pay raises in January 2010, the smallest since 1975. Most federal workers also get longevity pay hikes — called steps — that average 1.5% per year.

I wonder how many private sector employees – at least of those still employed – have seen a pay raise of any kind since January, 2008?

By: proreason

proreason — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:57:47 +0000

You may wonder how somebody can survive on $100K+ a year, but don’t forget their gold-plated medical benefits, and platinum retirement packages.

And it’s probably worth something to have a job from which you can’t be fired or laid off, and for which the salary goes up every year regardless of the economy, and for which advancement is automatic, and which has more holidays than other jobs, and for which vacation and sick time accrues across years, and which has strict work hours that you can’t exceed and generous work breaks and virtually no standards of performance and virtually no hiring standards. And of course, once you learn the job, it will change at the pace of Methusala, because the work rules are unrelated to the economy…they are dictated by laws that rarely change. All of that has to be worth something.

That’s why so many people are willing to accept the piddling salaries.