Federal pay ahead of private industry
Recession is nutrient for bureaucrats, elixir for government growth
Originally Posted At USA Today
By Dennis Cauchon
March 6, 2010
These salary figures do not include the value of
health, pension and other benefits, which averaged
$40,785 per federal employee in 2008 vs. $9,882 per
private worker, according to the Bureau of Economic
Analysis.
Federal pay has become a hot political issue in recent
months because of concerns over the federal budget
deficit and recession-battered wages in the private
sector.
Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., made federal pay an issue
in his successful campaign to fill Edward Kennedy's
seat and is fighting for a pay freeze.
The federal government spends about $125 billion
annually on compensation for about 2 million civilian
employees.
"The data flip the conventional wisdom on its head,"
says Cato Institute budget analyst Chris Edwards, a
critic of federal pay policy. "Federal workers make
substantially more than private workers, not less, in
addition to having a large advantage in benefits."
But National Treasury Employees Union President
Colleen Kelley says the comparison is faulty because
it "compares apples and oranges." Federal
accountants, for example, perform work that has more
complexity and requires more skill than accounting
work in the private sector, she says.
"When you look at the actual duties, you see that very few federal jobs align with those in the private
sector," she says. She says federal employees are paid
an average of 26% less than non-federal workers
doing comparable work.
Office of Personnel Management spokeswoman
Sedelta Verble, says higher pay also reflects the
longevity and older age of federal workers.
USA TODAY used Bureau of Labor Statistics data to
compare salaries in every federal job that had a
private-sector equivalent. For example, the federal
government's 57,000 registered nurses — working
for the Veterans Administration and elsewhere — were
paid an average of $74,460 a year, $10,680 more
than the average for private-sector nurses.
The BLS reports that 216 occupations covering 1.1
million federal workers exist in both the federal
government and the private sector. An additional 124
federal occupations covering 750,000 employees —
air-traffic controllers, tax collectors and others — did
not have direct equivalents, according to the BLS.
Federal jobs have more limited salary ranges than
private-sector jobs, some of which have million-
dollar payouts.
Key findings:
• Federal. The federal pay premium cut across all job
categories — white-collar, blue-collar, management,
professional, technical and low-skill. In all, 180 jobs
paid better average salaries in the federal
government; 36 paid better in the private sector.
•Private. The private sector paid more on average in a
select group of high-skill occupations, including
lawyers, veterinarians and airline pilots. The
government's 5,200 computer research scientists
made an average of $95,190, about $10,000 less
than the average in the corporate world.
•State and local. State government employees had an
average salary of $47,231 in 2008, about 5% less
than comparable jobs in the private sector. City and
county workers earned an average of $43,589, about
2% more than private workers in similar jobs. State
and local workers have higher total compensation
than private workers when the value of benefits is included.
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