If You're Not Already Pissed You Will Be After Reading This...
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.
Let me just type that again differently.
Federal employees earning over 150k increased from 1,868 to 10,100 in less than 2 years.
WTF?
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 Pay Scale 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.
• Paycaps 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.
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.
Let me just type that again differently.
Federal employees earning over 150k increased from 1,868 to 10,100 in less than 2 years.
WTF?
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 Pay Scale 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.
• Paycaps 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.
Comment
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Comment by Jeff on December 12, 2009 at 4:09pm
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youhavetoforgiveme, great name by the way but very hard to type for those of us used to including spaces between words.
The water bill, the electric bill, the gas bill, the trash bill, the property taxes, the insurance and the mortgage are beginning to bother me.
We're just a few months away from quitting the mortgage all together. We're waiting for warmer months so as not to have to move to an apartment in the snow.
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Patriot Horse, I just don't know what to say.
We're partially at fault, you and I, though minimally.
Here in the US, whether as the result of many years of environmental pollution and food additives or a compromised and ill-fitting public school system, or who-knows-what, we've been breeders of stupidity.
I'm at fault as much as anyone else. My own daughter who's 28 with two children of her own has only a very vague idea of the concepts we discuss here on 12.160. From the subjects I mentioned above in this comment to social, economic and political concerns, she's virtually clueless. It just isn't a part of her agenda while struggling to survive and raise two children in this complicated world we live in.
That doesn't mean she isn't a loving, caring, wonderful and kind person, because she is. It does mean that this struggle will be a generational one going on long after I'm gone.
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Comment by youhavetoforgiveme on December 12, 2009 at 3:51pm
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My wife made a comment about the water bill about a week ago to the effect of that because money is tight lately we've been using LESS water and electricity, but the bills keep going UP.... Lately I've been pondering....
Water Company: There is a drought this year...we must petition the Public Utilities commission to enforce rationing!
PUC (Public Utilities Commision): No problem...we can do that for you.
Water Company: Shit! People are using less water-- we're losing money! We must Petition the PUC to raise our rates to maintain our profitability!
PUC (Public Utilities Commision): No problem...we can do that for you. But this is the last time....
Water Company: Shit! We've raised our rates so high, people are using even less water! We can't go to the PUC anymore...what about our payroll, our retirement funds, our standard of living??? Not to mention rising maintenance costs....
No problem...no one ever reads their meter anyway....we'll slowly cook the books on how much water they use until someone just starts to notice, then we'll go back to the PUC and enough time will have passed that they will be happy to accomodate us! Problem solved!
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In some very small way, I'm not surprised....other than that...you're right....WHAT THE FUCK, OVER???
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Comment by plantop14 on December 12, 2009 at 7:04am
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They are definitely pulling down some big $ but, unfortunately for them, they are not the cream of the crop when it comes to being a "real American" ................. we are!
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Yup
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Comment by Tara on December 12, 2009 at 1:42am
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WTF is right! Now we know where most of our tax dollars are spent, paying these a-holes to do nothing but tighten the noose around our necks even more!
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