Government Work

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.
    USA Today

Good pay, nice benefits, no heavy lifting and if it snows, you get the day off.

Comments

[Lazarus Long]

Sounds like it is all chiefs and no indians in fed.gov these days.

[G. Cross]

Let's check the facts of this time period. We are talking Dec. '07 to June '09. The Bush machine was in place for 15 of those 18 months and I suspect had more influence over the last 3 months than the new Obama group. Plus here's one of the big pieces:

"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."

Seems those Bush-Cheney wars are having a big pay-off for some folks.

[Vermont Woodchuck]

Obama has had a year to change that. Where is the Hopey Changey good time Happy Days are here stuff?

Enough of the BDS! Blame Obama!

[trice]

And as we always have to remind our liberal friends, democrats have been in the majority of congress since the beginning of 2007. The president can present and promote a plan, sign on or veto, but congress always has the power of the purse.

[Chris Campion]

Actually, it's 18 months, and 12 months under the Bush administration, since the swearing-in tends to happen the same time in January. But all of that is quibbling, since you won't find a lot of Bush defenders here regarding spending under his administration, even with the Democratic congress. The larger point is still valid - in a recession, the gov't is borrowing and spending more money is does not have, and paying high salaries that Congressman and Presidents are routinely deriding in the private sector. There's a reason - the "spread the wealth" around effect tends to buy votes for the people doing the re-distribution. Ask any SEIU member whose not too busy beating up protesters exercising their right to free speech.

Can the people elect their own "pay czar" to trim federal salaries? If not, why not? Take it one step further - since most Senators are millionaires, why are taking a salary and perks? Can we means-test Congressional salaries, like the rest of us are means-tested in terms of how much we get to keep of our own salaries, based on the buffoons who write (and subsequently evade) the tax code? Rangel would be beaten from the fort in the real world, yet he's defended by his congressional compatriots.

When your head is buried deep in the federal trough, it's sometimes hard to hear the screams of outrage.