How many workers are enough to perform the functions of our federal government? Excluding postal workers, there are about 2.1 million civilian federal employees in the current fiscal year.
Do you think that’s too many, too few or about right?
Well, the government evidently believes it does not have nearly the number of taxpayer-funded workers that it needs. During the next four years alone, Uncle Sam intends to hire almost 600,000 more federal workers, according to the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service. That would bring the total to nearly 3 million — or roughly one federal employee for every 100 Americans.
But just as eye-popping as the number of federal employees is the size of their compensation. Average annual wages and benefits for civilian federal workers is a staggering $120,000. Broken down, that comes to about $79,000 in annual pay, plus about $41,000 in benefits.
How does that compare with the private sector? Well, the average private-sector worker earns about $70,000 in wages and benefits combined — approximately $60,000 in pay plus $10,000 in benefits.