YUPPIE PARADISE ! ! ! Federal Workers Enjoy Unprecedented Salaries as Most of the Country Eats Shit
Mack the Knife
Average pay $30,000 over private sector
By Dennis Cauchon
USA TODAY
The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded
during the recession, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal
salary data.
Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14%
to 19% of civil servants during the recession's first 18 months — and
that's before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.
Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and
hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the
private sector.
The highest-paid federal employees are doing best of all on salary
increases. Defense Department civilian employees earning $150,000 or
more increased from 1,868 in December 2007 to 10,100 in June 2009, the
most recent figure available.
When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one
person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later,
1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000.
The trend to six-figure salaries is occurring throughout the federal
government, in agencies big and small, high-tech and low-tech. The
primary cause: substantial pay raises and new salary rules.
"There's no way to justify this to the American people. It's
ridiculous," says Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, a first-term lawmaker
who is on the House's federal workforce subcommittee.
Jessica Klement, government affairs director for the Federal Managers
Association, says the federal workforce is highly paid because the
government employs skilled people such as scientists, physicians and
lawyers. She says federal employees make 26% less than private workers
for comparable jobs.
USA TODAY analyzed the Office of Personnel Management's database that
tracks salaries of more than 2 million federal workers. Excluded from
OPM's data: the White House, Congress, the Postal Service,
intelligence agencies and uniformed military personnel.
The growth in six-figure salaries has pushed the average federal
worker's pay to $71,206, compared with $40,331 in the private sector.
Key reasons for the boom in six-figure salaries:
•Pay hikes. Then-president Bush recommended — and Congress approved —
across-the-board raises of 3% in January 2008 and 3.9% in January
2009. President Obama has recommended 2% pay raises in January 2010,
the smallest since 1975. Most federal workers also get longevity pay
hikes — called steps — that average 1.5% per year.
•New pay system. Congress created a new National Security Personnel
System for the Defense Department to reward merit, in addition to the
across-the-board increases. The merit raises, which started in January
2008, were larger than expected and rewarded high-ranking employees.
In October, Congress voted to end the new pay scale by 2012.
•Pay caps eased. Many top civil servants are prohibited from making
more than an agency's leader. But if Congress lifts the boss' salary,
others get raises, too. When the Federal Aviation Administration
chief's salary rose, nearly 1,700 employees' had their salaries lifted
above $170,000, too.