[mattduke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he average annual federal workers compensation, pay plus benefits, is $106,871 compared to just $53,288 for the private sector according to the United States Bureau of Economic Analysis.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mattduke', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he average annual federal workers compensation, pay plus benefits, is $106,871 compared to just $53,288 for the private sector according to the United States Bureau of Economic Analysis.

[PrestonSturges]

Federal employees are full time employees.

It sounds like you are comparing them to part-time workers with no benefits.

Federal wages and benefits have declined greatly over the years.

And a lot of people being paid by the federal government but not being counted are contractors who may make more or much much less.

[mattduke]

Let's take a look at the higest per-capita income counties in the nation, shall we?

wikipedia

I see Loudoun County, Fairfax County, Howard County, Montgomery County, and Prince William Country. All satellites of Parasite City.

[Tyler_JC]

Should federal employees earn, on average, more than the top 10% of American workers?

If that number is right, it would mean that federal employees earn almost twice as much as the average paramedic (benefits included). Does that make any sense to anyone?

There are an awful lot of highly paid bureaucrats who do nothing but create power point presentations and suck off the federal teat.

How many of these people do we really need?

The real government employees that provide real services that real people need earn nowhere near $100,000 a year.

Social workers earn around $43,000 + benefits. Police officers earn a fine living but rarely, if ever, hit the $100,000 figure even at the end of their careers. Enlisted men on the front lines often have to file for foodstamps to feed their families. It's disgraceful how little they are compensated for the work they do for our country. Think about how many soldiers there are earning less than the poverty line. That would tend to drag down the average, no?

Then you look at the 620 "geographers" that the federal government employees. Each earning a median wage of $72,000 a year plus a nice benefits package. The comparable private sector "geographer" gets around $55,000 with far less generous benefits. Geography is a class that college students take in order to boost their GPAs and avoid having to do real work.

Please explain to me why we have even ONE "geographer" on the federal payroll and why ANY of these idiots deserve more than their private sector counterparts.

Cutting out the excess $20,000 in wages/benefits that these utterly useless federal "workers" receives would say taxpayers over 12 million dollars a year.

Or we could fire all of them and save at least $50 million in wages/benefits.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')ederal employees are full time employees.

It sounds like you are comparing them to part-time workers with no benefits.

[vision-master]

Try live on average J6P Federal wages in NYC or Cali?

[PrestonSturges]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mattduke', 'L')et's take a look at the higest per-capita income counties in the nation, shall we?

wikipedia

I see Loudoun County, Fairfax County, Howard County, Montgomery County, and Prince William Country. All satellites of Parasite City.

[PrestonSturges]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', '
')Please explain to me why we have even ONE "geographer" on the federal payroll and why ANY of these idiots deserve more than their private sector counterparts.
.

[Tyler_JC]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrestonSturges', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', '
')Please explain to me why we have even ONE "geographer" on the federal payroll and why ANY of these idiots deserve more than their private sector counterparts.
.

[PrestonSturges]

"....Private foundations can do the exploring if people consider it worth doing. ..."

that's a particularly bad example, because how would the government oh I don't know lease areas for oil drilling? Or keep track of the land it owns? Or know where to put a highway?

[bratticus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mattduke', 'L')et's take a look at the higest per-capita income counties in the nation, shall we?

wikipedia

I see Loudoun County, Fairfax County, Howard County, Montgomery County, and Prince William Country. All satellites of Parasite City.

[nobodypanic]

by law the govt regularly does wage surveys where it compares jobs to the private sector in order to make sure compensation is in line. this is mainly done for blue collar jobs, but they also do industry surveys to set pay for teachers, healthcare professionals and others.

in many cases, you'd actually make more in private industry, or at least that used to be the case, before the economy was run into the ground.

[jdmartin]

Using the average for anything is a good way to skew the results towards whatever end you're aiming for. Let's see some median salaries, and further, let's see them in specific professions for comparison. Not every job will translate over, but I bet we can compare the median salary of a doctor at the VA with a doctor at a typical medical center. Oddly enough, a lot of the doctors I see at the VA come from other countries. Now, this is just a wild-ass guess, but I'd hazard the reason for that is because a doctor from Punjab will work for several tens of thousands less than a doctor from Atlanta. Which would tend to suggest that the feds are looking to pay less, not more, at least in that profession.

Arguments like this make no sense anyway. If you take the money away from these people, what happens? They spend less money. They don't buy coffee from you, the poor schlep at Starbucks, and Starbucks closes and leaves you without a job.

But I understand it - class warfare, worker on worker, is an American tradition. Anyone remember "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street", the episode of the Twilight Zone where aliens were sitting on the hilltops making the electricity go out, and the people on street were soon killing each other? Well, we're the people on the streets, and TPTB are sitting on the hilltop laughing.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('nobodypanic', 'b')y law the govt regularly does wage surveys where it compares jobs to the private sector in order to make sure compensation is in line. this is mainly done for blue collar jobs, but they also do industry surveys to set pay for teachers, healthcare professionals and others.

in many cases, you'd actually make more in private industry, or at least that used to be the case, before the economy was run into the ground.

[patience]

Tyler wrote:

"Then you look at the 620 "geographers" that the federal government employees. Each earning a median wage of $72,000 a year plus a nice benefits package. The comparable private sector "geographer" gets around $55,000 with far less generous benefits."

I don't know where you got your figures, but they don't fit with our reality. My wife is a "geographer" for the US Census Bueau. Her job is to correct digital maps of each city/county political borders, where politicos are gerrymandering the borders to get more tax money. (I know, I don't like it either.) Her salary is just slightly north of $40,000/year, and she is one of the higher paid people in her unit, except for the supervisor, who makes around $50k. If your averages are correct, then there must be some "geographer" making one heckuva lot more money somewhere. But it's not here.

edit to add: She will retire March 1, 2009. Her Social Security check will be $765/mo., and her retirement aannuity from the Census Bureau will be about $50/month shy of what it will cost to maintain her health insurance. So, for all those who think govt retirements are great, not so much.

[topcat]

Best take a look here.

http://www.fedjobs.com/pay/pay.html

Everybody, except those in Hawaii and Alaska gets a minimum of 13.86% over the standard GS scale. Check out the bump they receive in some of the other locales.

I see that if I still had my old cubicle in the District of Crime, and not advanced another step or received any WIGI's, my old pay of $48,000+ is now $77,900+.

Now that is quite a raise for a 12 year timeframe.

[Farknight]

What I sense here on this strand is envy of those folks that decided to "join the ship of State" and become a federal employee. Yes, here in Loudoun (we call it LOWDOWN) County we have lotsa money. We also have an exceptionally high level of smart and hard-working folks with multiple degrees. In my situation my wife and I busted ass and Have JDs, masters and bachelors from top notch universities. None of it came free to us, neither in high tuition costs or simple hard work.

Okay, so we are paid well, we earned it dam it. Far more than some clown who throws leather balls for a living and gets millions or others who pretend to be someone and also get rich. We have contributed a lot to society both locally and produced results such as finished transportation projects that benefit thousands daily including many businesses now making a great buck even in this depression. We have helped thousands find jobs and money. But nobody gave of squat except maybe my Mom and dad who also worked their arses off in business.

So, if you don't like the income demographics of Loudoun or Fairfax...boo hoo to you. Grow up, work hard and get a skill that means something. Yes, I grow a garden, use a wood stove, own a gun and know how to use it (I'm a retire police officer after all) and yes, I pack hydro-shock ammo to kick your ass to hell if need be and I can double center mass as trained. I live in the country, own land and woods and I work hard with the mind and earn dam good money doing so.

We are no parasites of DC, they are parasites of us. I fell no shame at our county's wealth as we are a population of hardworking families...yes families. Loudoun is comprised of almost 70% families with Moms and Dads and kids. We stay married, believe in Jesus or whoever and work hard. We earn our wealth. The feds protect our collective arses everyday so we can pontificate on the internet here.

When I was a cop for all those years I saved so many butts I have lost count. I helped slime bags and hurt Mothers and kids. I NEVER ever killed anyone despite having guns, AK-47s, multiple knives of every description, shotguns, and a sword (or three)used against me. I always tried to save lives, however utterly miserable. So forget TV and movieland. Now, in my second career as in Virginia where we treat retired (and injured in the line of Duty Cops) like sh*t, I have worked for 20+ years for my local government building infrastructure that has benefited thousand and made folks millions.

My Father-in-Law, now passed was a great man, and for a real reason. Years ago, in Korea, while a captain with the First Calvary he and his men were literally left to die along the banks of the Yalu River as MacArthur fuc&ked up. He spent 4 years, real f&ucking years in a Chinese POW camp. He made it, but he earned his pension. As crap as it was.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')ow, in my second career as in Virginia where we treat retired (and injured in the line of Duty Cops) like sh*t, I have worked for 20+ years for my local government building infrastructure that has benefited thousand and made folks millions.

[AlexdeLarge]

For feds, more get 6-figure salaries
link

Average pay $30,000 over private sector !!!!!!!$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal salary data.

Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession's first 18 months — and that's before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.

Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector.