The Cushy Curse of Government Jobs
Kelly Torrance is a must-read on Biggs and Richwine in the Wall Street Journal:
They crunch the numbers, controlling for all manner of variables, and find a “stubborn” gap between public- and private-sector wages.
Even using all the standard controls—including race and gender, full- or part-time work, firm size, marital status, region, residence in a city or suburb, and more—the federal wage premium does not disappear. It stubbornly hovers around 12%, meaning private employees must work 13½ months to earn what comparable federal workers make in 12.
That’s just the difference in wages. As Biggs and Richwine note, benefits such as healthcare and pensions tend to be at a higher level for public employees, too. And in this recession, perhaps there’s no putting a price on the increased job security that comes with a government gig. In fact, as unemployment rates across the country remain high, President Obama wants to spend $50 billion bailing out some public employees who might lose their jobs because the states that pay their salaries are bankrupt.
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May '10
Re: The Cushy Curse of Government Jobs
I think there is some missing pieces in this argument. First, I know about at least a dozen people who transferred from contractor to federal employee status and had to take as much as a $20,000 pay cut. Also, particularly over at DOD, they are converting many contractor jobs into federal positions. And for families like mine who have spouses with prior military service, federal employment is an opportunity to as least get some retirement compensation for time spent in the Armed Forces. And annual salary increases where considerably less this year than last. And speaking of the military, why not go after their pay? Even with his "generous" salary, my husband's take home pay is still less than when he was a Naval officer. Why do all these right of center forums like to beat up on federal employees so much, anyway?
Re: The Cushy Curse of Government Jobs
Thanks, Karen, for presenting the military angle on this story. It's one I haven't heard, and it's important. Who'd support paying someone more for being a defense contractor than a serviceman -- especially if they're doing the same job?
Jun '10
Re: The Cushy Curse of Government Jobs
You can find anecdotal evidence to support practically anything, but the big picture is, add salary, benefits, retirement, and paid time off, and the (unionized) public sector has gone significantly ahead of the private sector, and that's not even considering that in most cases, government work has greater job security, and fewer productivity evaluations. Not true for all public jobs, but whenever I visit government offices, I don't remember a lot of obvious rushing around to impress the boss. It's not stressful in that way. There's stupidity stress, but that doesn't make you run up and down the halls faster.
May '10
Re: The Cushy Curse of Government Jobs
Thanks for replying, James. With military, it's not so much about comparing salary scales to federal employees, than taxes. I think if memory serves, the housing allowance (BAH) portion of military pay isn't taxed. That's also true for separation pay, hazard pay and other allowances, I believe. I'm not calling for the reduction in military pay. I think it was Reagan who actually raised military pay to a living wage. I just don't think its fair to call for a salary reduction of agents with say the CIA or FBI, then treat active duty as sacred cows. I think an interesting comparison would be to look at Booze Allen, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and other big gov't contractors and compare the salaries of their employees with federal employees who do the same job. I think you'd find the contractors make considerably more, even after factoring in benefits the feds receive. While there are fewer firings in the public sector than private, it is also a lot harder to be hired as a federal employee.
May '10
Re: The Cushy Curse of Government Jobs
The rise in public sector employment and renumeration is an issue that could/should resonate negatively with the electorate, and could/should be exploited by the Republicans/Libertarians/Tea Party. The facts speak for themselves; it is now an opportunity to be framed and presented to the electorate by those who would stop this wreckless public sector hiring and HR management, reverse it, and prevent it from happenning in the future!