USA today had a front page story about compensation changes in the federal government. At a time when the federal government is bleeding deficits and the nation's economy is in the worst state since the great depression what do you think is going on with pay for federal employees. The number of employees making more than six figures jumped from 14% to 19% of the federal workforce. The increases do not include data for bonuses and overtime.
Last year when many public employees in the country were either facing furloughs or pay reductions or both, federal employees enjoyed a 3% pay increase in 2008 and a 3.9% increase in 2009. That is in addition to the step increases that are built into the pay system. According to the story, the highest paid employees are getting the largest share of the booty.
One might argue that federal employees should enjoy these increases because they are paid less than employees in the private sector. The Office of Personnel Management which keeps data on these things excludes the White House, postal service, uniformed military personnel and employees from the intelligence agencies. The average federal worker gets paid $71,206 compared to the average in the private sector of $40,331.
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What is not taken into account are the number of jobs that the feds have 'privatized'. These tend to be lower paying (security, food service, maintenance, etc.) which would increase the average. Also, there are few PT positions in gov't (at least from a payroll perspective) while the private sector number is probably impacted in some way by few work hours per person.
However, I do agree with your point that federal employment has been (is) immune from the realities of the economy as it has impacted both local government and private employers. I guess that's one of the advantages of being folks who print the money...
I will have some more comments on this issue in the next few days.
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