Various “think tanks” and media outlets give differing accounts of the gap between the pay earned by federal government workers and what the rest of us earn. But there is broad agreement that there is a substantial gap.
USA Today took a look at the data recently and came to some startling conclusions, among them:
* The average federal “civil servant” earned pay and benefits of more than $123,000 in 2009, compared with pay and benefits of about $61,000 for the average private-sector worker. So federal workers earn more than double the total compensation of private-sector workers.
* While private-sector compensation grew only 8.8 percent, adjusted for inflation, from 2000 through 2009, federal pay rose 36.9 percent.
* Average federal pay grew 33 percent faster than inflation from 2000 through 2009.
* Even for comparable occupations, the federal government pays its employees 20 percent more than they would earn in the private sector.
Of course, when we say that “the federal government” pays its employees’ wages and benefits, what we really mean is that you, the taxpayer, pay those wages and benefits — whether or not they are reasonable.
We do not begrudge fair pay for federal workers performing constitutional duties. But with more than 2 million workers, the inefficient federal government has gone far beyond its constitutional mandate.