Federal Workers Make $11,000 More Than Private Sector Workers, and There’s More of Them
USA Today ran an excellent piece about the growing disparity in private v public sector wages and total compensation. Using 2008 Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the most recent figures, USA Today statisticians calculated that federal employees on average make $11,091 more than there private sector counterparts. In a job by job breakdown USA today illustrates their findings:
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If getting paid an additional $10,000 to work for the federal government wasn’t good enough, their generous retirement plan sweeten the deal. USA today writes:
“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.”
While public sector workers are being paid more there are also more of them. Taking their cues from the Obama administration, federal agencies have expanded their scope and payrolls. The below graph highlights this trend:
So what does this mean for the America? Huge debt induced by unsustainable spending. You don’t need a deficit commission to tell you that. So what can we do to end this death spiral towards insolvency? Hold the line on public sector unionization. Unions facilitate inflated wages and pensions while also encouraging the federal government to hire new workers. Considering that in 2009, for the first time ever, public sector union workers constituted a majority of all unionized workers, slowing this creep is a great place to start.
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