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To get back to the thread title and the suggestion to cut pay for all federal workers ....
I know that there's a lot of anger in the country about bailouts - banks, car companies, etc. People didn't want their tax dollars going for such things. I get it.
And I know there's a fair amount of anger about health care reform, although honestly, there's a lot of good in the bill that was passed, but it could have been so much better.
And for sure we all realize the anger that exists towards government - specifically, the federal government. There has always been such anger, but it seems deeper, and angrier, than I can recall it ever being in the past (with the possible exception of Vietnam).
Personally, I wish that people would channel whatever anger they have for the federal government to those individuals who actually make the laws ... the people you send to Washington. And I hope you don't direct your anger at the vast majority of federal workers who are simply trying to do as we all do - make their way through life, provide for their families, and help their children do better than they did.
Did you know that only one in seven federal workers work in the Washington DC metropolitan area? That means that when someone talks about "federal workers", it's not just - or even predominately - those in DC. We're talking about federal employees who live and work in Idaho, and South Carolina, and Missouri, and literally every state in the Union.
They are your neighbors, maybe your friends. They might serve on the PTA of your child's school, or help coach your child's Little League team, or attend your place of worship. They're the people who deliver your mail; answer your Social Security questions; provide taxpayer services at the local office of the IRS. (Hmmm - maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that last one!)
And in the process of living and working in communities across America, they rent or buy housing; they lease or buy vehicles; they buy groceries, and clothes, and furniture; they pay local and state and, yes, federal taxes.
Do people really want to punish federal workers and, by extension, the communities in which they live by imposing an arbitrary pay cut for the sole reason that they work for the federal government?
I get that people are angry. Do something constructive with that anger. If you feel that your Senator or Representative isn't doing the job you want them to do, elect people you trust, people you believe in, people who will work with one another to solve our country's problems rather than creating additional problems.
Please provide a link to these studies. Make sure that the studies are for truly comparable jobs - nurses in the federal sector vs. non-federal nurses, lawyers in the federal sector vs. non-federal lawyers, etc. Thanks.
I know this is anecdotal, but a colleague of mine who is in the exact same field as me with the exact same number of years of experience makes approximately the same as I do. He works for the VA and I work in the private sector. We both do the exact same job function with the exact same title. We make very comparable salaries (within $3K/year of each other). The difference is in the benefits and pension plans. His blows mine away. One day I will calculate out the actual monetary difference between our benefits plans, but I imagine it's pretty significant.
Do people really want to punish federal workers and, by extension, the communities in which they live by imposing an arbitrary pay cut for the sole reason that they work for the federal government?
I'm not angry and I don't consider it punishment to be paid what you are worth in the competitive marketplace.
If a company wants to pay workers more than they're worth, that decision only affects people who choose to own the stock of the company. Politicians should not have the same right to overcompensate employees with other people's money.
Do people really want to punish federal workers and, by extension, the communities in which they live by imposing an arbitrary pay cut for the sole reason that they work for the federal government?
Oh, but they do because they really are that stupid. In fact, they are so stupid that if you get local you can hear the same schpeil about market wages and they do this with great things like teaching and police and courts. If you have any benefits at all than you are living large. They hate unions in the private sector. They hate any movement for health care reform. They drove their own wages down. Many didn't want to go to school after high school. They have no idea how the government works. And on top of this, they walk around like they know what you do and they can do it better.
I don't think anyone wants to punish anyone. I just think people believe that folks whose salaries and benefits are paid by our taxes should be held accountable -- and if need be, be asked to bear the same kind of sacrifices that the rest of us are undergoing. That doesn't seem unreasonable.
The problem with local, state, and federal government needing to go on a hiring binge is that the government doesn't operate the same way a business does. If a business hires people and can no longer afford to pay the contracted salaries, they either let the employee go, or increase the cost of the goods/services they offer. The government on the other hand, if they can no longer afford to pay the salaries promised, in MOST cases they simply exact more funds from the taxpayer. There have been instances where government employees are laid off, but they are few and far between.
I assume it's timing. SS is based on CPI measured year over year in the Jul-Sep quarter. That got them a 5.8% increase after 2008. The COLA isn't cut when CPI goes down, so SS benefits last year were higher than they should have been.
Okay, I still don't have a clue what you're talking about, but I recognized "COLA" in there so I have to assume that federal employees are either drinking less COLA or at least a weaker COLA formulation. Something tells me I'm still a bit off.
I keep reading that no one has a plan to actually shrink the federal government. How's this for an idea.
With the exception of people in the armed forces below a yet to be specified rank, all federal workers should be forced to undergo a pay cut.
Those whos annual income is less than $150,000 - 10%
Those whos annual income is greater than $150,000 - 15%
There should be no annual increases or merrit increases for two years.
There should be a hiring freeze for all federal jobs. Make the government learn how to get things done with less people.
This isn't much more than what private industry has been forced to do over the last few years and studies have shown that federal government employees already make more and have better benefits than those in comperable positions in private industry.
I'll sit back and wait for the bombs in my mail box.
I don't think there should be a pay cut but I do think some agencies should be eliminated and there should be an investigation into the structure of all federal headquarters operations to see if they are top heavy, that is, to see if the reason for so many high graded employees is to artificially create the need for high graded manager and executive positions to oversee them. They should also investigate managerial spans of control in headquarters versus field offices and why high graded first line managers in headquarters have such lower spans of control with high graded employees compared to field offices where lower graded first line managers oversee so many more employees.
Also, I'm for a hiring freeze and not replacing retired employees as a means to reduce the federal workforce. Also, someone should look into why, when contractors are hired by the federal government, employees aren't let go. Contractors are not replacing feds they are supplementing them. The question should be why aren't feds doing those jobs. I'm not talking rocket science either but why are contractors doing personnel type work, for example?
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