Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I could easily do that. But, I don't have any kids to support. My car is paid off. I have only one bill, studentl loan, cell phone, rent..I don't really live an extravagant llifestyle. In DC though...it is all about keeping up "appearances", belonging to the right gym, going out to lunch, wearing fancy clothes..having the newest, latest, greatest phone, and gadget. Those folks won't last a month. GS-12 salary, and lower, those folks will stop putting money in the TSP, maybe even borrow against their account. Most of them live pay check to pay check...
I agree, fed workers are no better off than anyone. Pay vs costs today is unreal, you'd really need a fairly high rating to live in a lower avg cost neighborhood. Those east coast workers have cost of living adjustments, but still don't end up that much. A 3-4yr fed employee earns on avg around 38-40k gross. Take that 20 something % off for taxes, adjust for insurance costs, understand you can earn comp time but no OT. Factored all in and the advantage slims real quick.
I could easily do that. But, I don't have any kids to support. My car is paid off. I have only one bill, studentl loan, cell phone, rent..I don't really live an extravagant llifestyle. In DC though...it is all about keeping up "appearances", belonging to the right gym, going out to lunch, wearing fancy clothes..having the newest, latest, greatest phone, and gadget. Those folks won't last a month. GS-12 salary, and lower, those folks will stop putting money in the TSP, maybe even borrow against their account. Most of them live pay check to pay check...
Yes.
I live in Northern VA (lots of my coworkers will be impacted by this), and they exclaim that they will "go broke" without 20% of income. To be fair, it's quite the hit. However, the people I hear this from are the ones driving expensive cars (30k plus), have $500k+ homes and buy their six year olds the newest generation ipads every year.
I could do take the loss right now, but I have been in situations not so long ago that would not have allowed me to pay all my bills with such a pay cut (20%). As recently as 3 years ago, I could not take a cut like that for very long.
I used to be really good at saving money and living below my means, but with all the obligations I have being older, doing that is much harder to do. For a good chunk of my working career so far, it has been living pay check to pay check.
Couple that with living in a high cost area and just making an average wage, I am sure some of those folks directly dealing with furloughs are filled with some huge worries.
Financially, I would be okay because my husband also works and we live reasonably. But I would not be happy about it. I also would wonder how much my benefits would be affected.
Maybe if I made a lot more money to begin with, like 100K, I wouldn't mind as much. But being I make no where near that, I would feel like it would be really difficult for me to get ahead.
I understand the goals here is to opt for the lesser of two evils (cut pay, or lose jobs). That said, this concept may make sense for those that simply do shift work or the nature of the job is more hourly based. But it makes little sense for many professionals who is paid for their cognitive skills or to carry out a responsibility.
Take a salaried employee whose job is to be responsible for WXYZ; if you don't reduce that person's responsibility (i.e. XYZ now as opposed to WXYZ), they will in essence have less pay AND less time to do their job. Kind of a bad deal if you ask me.
For many jobs, I've never agreed with the concept of including "work hours" in the equation. If I'm a project manager, my job is to ensure a project is completed from start to finish within the defined scope. Giving me a four day week isn't gonna benefit me a whole lot unless you are also going to change the scope of the project or the number of projects I'm working on.
Wouldn't a 20% hour cut also put them just under the minimum to receive health insurance and other benefits?
I suspect that will wipe them out financially much more than the pay cut.
A lot of companies also use layoffs as a way to get rid of people they don't like (for whatever reason).
Yes, I can see that in smaller companies/departments. But when thousands are let go, there's a lot of good people swept up in the mix.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
