[Loki]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', 'S')omething has gone terribly wrong with this system of ours and it ain't funny at all. Something must be done!!!

[dinopello]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Loki', 'I') have a private sector farm job lined up for the spring, but the public sector horticulture jobs pay considerably better per hour, and more importantly offer health insurance and other benefits. As an independent agent, would I not be foolish to pursue public sector jobs? Or should my distaste for government waste override pecuniary considerations? Serious question, not being facetious.

[Olaf]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Loki', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', 'S')omething has gone terribly wrong with this system of ours and it ain't funny at all. Something must be done!!!

[TheAntiDoomer]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', 'Y')es! The $130,000 luggage searching passport stamping clerk might undergo testing and certifications similar to the $30,000 rural deputy sheriff or police officer. It's just flat out crazy!

[eastbay]

By all means go for the government job if a choice drops on your lap Loki. They almost always pay much more plus the benefits are so very oil age, such as a 'pension', remember older people used to generally get them. Not so anymore.

Oh.... add 25% to what the pay chart shows for the passport clerks. Just about everywhere police applicants with any convictions need not bother applying. Same with $10/hr security guards nearly all of whom are also drug tested.

[polka]

I'm in state government. I believe I make 15-20% less than I would in the private sector, without factoring in the difference in benefits.

Eastbay, simply looking through the federal jobs website at usajobs.opm.gov, the pay is nothing exorbitant, at least in my area. Care to give some kind of link to the salaries of passport stampers?

I remember looking at a recent salary list of BART employees in California, and in that particular case I would have to agree with you.

[eastbay]

Polka, I certainly don't. I'm just going by what my friend says she earns. A big bump is apparently coming for them in a few weeks, however and if you search 'CBP officers' you'll find it, I presume. Anyone could do this, but I don't mind. I did find this after a one minute search:

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1265049379725.shtm

In the spring of 2010, DHS will implement the journeymen pay increase, raising the journeyman grade level for frontline Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officers, Border Patrol Agents and Agricultural Specialists from GS-11 level to the GS-12 level. An adjustment to base of $310.4M will fund the full-year impact of the salary and benefit requirements associated with this implementation.

So look at the gs chart above. Add 25% for law enforcement bonus. Add OT (my friend says they get all they want.... up to a cap of $30,000/year. But let's not dwell on this one single example for there are many, many more. The point is that the federal/private salary gap is growing. Common sense is shrinking. And it just can't continue forever.

[shakespear1]

I'm just amazed what I learn on this forum at times.

Sleepless nights, deadline up the cazoo and starting salaries no where close to what you guys mention above. Even an experienced engineer, due to the oil price driven layoffs over the years (now you have a job, next you are looking for one) I bet my average salary over the time of my working life would not come up to the starting average mentioned above

Welcome to the world of Petroleum Engineers.

By the way, layoffs are happening even in the PE Industry as most of you probable know !!!

[Olaf]

Salary Schedules. They aren't secret.

http://www.opm.gov/oca/10tables/indexGS.asp

Area of US not requiring cost of living adjustments:

http://www.opm.gov/oca/10tables/html/RUS.asp

[SeaGypsy]

I made the most ever in the private sector, as a venetian glassblower. 1st my dad and 3 of our 15 staff died from chemical exposure then the industry was outsourced to China.
Then I carved didgeridoos in the private sector for 3 years before landing a cushy art directors job in the gubmint. I left partly out of boredom, partly out of the routine was killing me, but largely because I couldn't handle the massive level of b/s happening at the upper middle and top of the pyramid. I found the people getting paid the most were, yes highly 'qualified', absolute b/s artists and manipulators of systems about selling stories. These stories, which are so very lucrative to the spinner and the gubmint who pays for them, are aimed at garnishing votes from an almost infinitely gullible electorate. The gubmint sees a problem emerging in the media. The top level spineers tell them what to say about it and where to put some $$$. The $$$ goes into 'grant funds' or 'allocated resources' then the middle level spinners take over. These write clever looking 'project applications' and select managers who know their job is to feed the spin back to the spinmiesters in exactly the way they want it through the 'grant acquittals process'. In a way which will purchase the votes of a certain sector of the populace.

The example given of the airport security person. She is being paid fat $ for her role in the spin machine. She has to be paid enough to not be vulnerable to being easily corrupted, to stay alert on the job and to file paperwork which makes the probably tiny percentage of contraband found look like all of it. Due to the vast paranoia around air travel as well as drug importation this fat wage purchases the votes of 2 subgroups, those worried about being blown out of the sky and those who believe in the war on drugs; possibly add illegal immigration to the list.

Many people in gubmint jobs on $100k would not get a job in the private sector or keep it if they did; for 2 reasons. In the private sector you have to be creating wealth for your employer. In the private sector your boss wants to know the truth.

[Olaf]

I attended a 'media relations workshop' for an hour the other day. I announced to everyone in attendance when it was over that I had renamed it, and that it now must be called "How to be an Effective Spinmeister and Propagandist". They didn't really seem to think it was funny.

Olaf

[mattduke]

This tax feeder is raking in $214k.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'L')ast November, Mercer County Sheriff Kevin Larkin won a third term in office.
Then on Jan. 1, Larkin retired, and became eligible for an $85,000-per-year pension earned over nearly 27 years in public service.
But Larkin didn't leave his post.
Instead, Larkin was cashing in on a move allowed under the state's pension system: he can legally continue working as sheriff (at a $129,634 annual salary) while collecting a pension based on his "retirement" from that very job.
His political opponents have made hay of his decision, but when it comes to collecting public retirement benefits and a taxpayer-funded salary simultaneously, it is clear that the sheriff is not alone.
At least seven other high-ranking officials in Mercer County earn six-figure salaries in public jobs while also receiving retirement benefits from public pension funds, The Times has found.

[Tanada]

Double dippers like your Sheriff of Mercer County are very common in Lucas County, Ohio as well. I have no problem with people drawing a Salary OR a pension, but not both at the same time. If you are a pensioner from Ohio and get a job in the private sector or in another state I have no problem with that either, but getting paid twice for the same job is very bad for the Taxpayers and for the younger people who can not move up because the 'old man' is still holding his position.

[polka]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', '[')i]In the spring of 2010, DHS will implement the journeymen pay increase, raising the journeyman grade level for frontline Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officers, Border Patrol Agents and Agricultural Specialists from GS-11 level to the GS-12 level.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mattduke', 'T')his tax feeder is raking in $214k.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'L')ast November, Mercer County Sheriff Kevin Larkin won a third term in office.
Then on Jan. 1, Larkin retired, and became eligible for an $85,000-per-year pension earned over nearly 27 years in public service.
But Larkin didn't leave his post.
Instead, Larkin was cashing in on a move allowed under the state's pension system: he can legally continue working as sheriff (at a $129,634 annual salary)

[SeaGypsy]

I think that's the gist of Eastbay's argument here. This is unrealistic and can't last.

[Cloud9]

You would think that it would all come to an end. Then again it may not. Consider agriculture. Roughly one percent feeds the rest of us. As we move into the robot nation, manufacturing may go through a similar evolution. We seem to be devolving into two populations, the service providers and the serviced.

The bottom end seems to be doing fine. I think it is the newly poor that are having difficulty.

Last night we were at Olive Garden. Four little girls were sitting next to us. Their conversation was about their babies and what Medicaid would and would not pay for. Two of them were talking about their memberships to Gold’s Gym. Two paid with cash and two paid with a credit card. The whole evening was quite enlightening.

At the end, I did not feel quite so guilty about the government pension I am going to receive.

[pablonite]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', 'H')ow did this happen?

[polka]

How did the federal reserve get dragged into this thread?

Sure, the dollar may have been stable over the period your link cites, but that doesn't mean it correlated with the real wealth of people. The latter half of those years was something known as "The Gilded Age" in America. I find it interesting the author used JP Morgan, a robber-baron, as the third name in his example. Talk about disparity in pay between haves and have-nots...

[mattduke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')ew Assembly Speaker John A. Perez gave his top aide an annual pay increase of nearly $65,000 - about $5,400 per month - upon becoming leader of the lower house, records show.

Sara Ramirez, Perez's chief of staff, was one of eight Capitol aides receiving pay hikes or promotions from the Los Angeles Democrat on March 1, the day he was sworn into office, according to documents obtained under open-records law.

Ramirez's annual salary is now $190,008 -- $80,424 higher than that of Perez or Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, whose pay was dropped from $133,639 to $109,584 last year by the state's independent salary-setting commission. Legislators not in leadership positions are paid $95,291 a year.