According to this, your tax dollars are paying some kickass salaries to government employees right now.
Specifically, as of 2008, the average federal salary was around $120k, while the average private sector employee salary was around $60k. Throw in benefits, and we’re talking an even more outrageous gap. The average federal employee’s benefits are valued at around $41k, compared to around $10k for a private sector employee’s.
Expect this gap to widen even more – there’s no reason to think otherwise, what with new councils and government agencies and czars to hire and whatnot.
According to this, it is a great time to be a government/public employee.
USA Today reported that the percentage of federal employees making more than $100k annually rose 5% during the first 18 months of the recession. AND, that at the beginning of that 18 months period, the Transportation Department had exactly one person making more than $170k annually. Now? One thousand, six hundred and ninety people in that department make over $170k. What in the holy hell???
Apparently, the NYT also reported that state and local governments added 110,000 jobs since the recession’s beginning, while private sector shed 6.9 MILLION jobs. And it’s not just government salaries which are growing – in 2008, goverment benefits grew 3 times as fast as private sector employees.
The article examines unionization as a contributor. Over thirty-seven percent of government employees are unionized. And those unions are loaded with money to spend on their own interests. And where they’re the most powerful (like CA and NY), their home states are suffering the most. Huh. I loved this line in the article: “The federal government follows not far behind, on the kind of diet geese enjoy prior to becoming foie gras.”
The article takes the California example further. The Teachers’ union there have made demands which have effectively created the worst schools in the nation, along with the highest paid teachers. Neat! Paying for lack of performance – always a sure-fire way to get results (snort).
Gawd.
