.
Okay, since you brought it up:
On balance, a government worker's base salary is equal to or higher than a comparable private sector job. For each exception you find to support your contention that it's not, I'll find a dozen to prove that it is indeed the case.
My sources are posted below. Please post your sources.
And then let's talk about benefits -- especially retirement benefits. I don't get any except what I save myself, and mine is typical of the majority of the private sector. So I work twenty years and get squat, while a government worker works twenty years and gets 40 to 50 percent of his highest salary for the rest of his life. Work 30 years, and he gets 70 percent or more.
Sorry, I don't buy your sob story.
(Cut and pasted)
The analysis compares the dollar value of benefits that various types of hypothetical employees earn in a year. The employees vary by age, income, and years of service, thus providing a broad comparison. The values represent only the portion of benefits that employers provide, not those that employees pay for directly. Comparisons are constructed to isolate differences in benefit values that arise solely from differences in provisions of the benefit plans.
On that basis, the analysis suggests that employee benefits represent a significant portion of the compensation packages of both the federal government and the large private firms covered by this analysis. Depending on age, salary, length of service, and retirement plan, benefits range from 26 percent to 50 percent of pay for federal employees and from 24 percent to 44 percent of pay for employees of the large private firms. In most cases examined, the value of the employee benefit package offered by the federal government exceeds the value of comparable benefits offered by private firms. The federal advantage can reach 7.2 percent of pay (see Summary Table 1). The analysis also indicates the following:
Federal workers covered by the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) have somewhat higher benefits, overall, than employees of large private firms. The benefits of FERS employees are also more generous than those of their counterparts who are covered by the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS).
Federal vacation, holiday, disability, FERS, and retiree health benefits generally are more generous than benefits of the same type offered by the private firms. Federal health insurance and life insurance, however, lag behind those benefits in the private sector. How the value of CSRS benefits compares depends on the age, income, and years of service of the employees. Employees who are able to retire early do well under the CSRS program.
For federal jobs with pay near the level of their private-sector counterparts, the advantage in employee benefits would put the value of the entire compensation package (pay and benefits together) at or above that of the private sector.
http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=821&sequence=0&from=7
And what about base pay?
http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs041.htm
And what about "unemployment rates"?
Private sector ~ 5.5 percent.
Government workers ~ 2.2 percent.
In 2003, the average government worker paid under the General Schedule earned $55,871.
The average income in the USA is about $35,000.
And considering the USA has a per capita GDP of $37,800, and considering that government workers do not contribute to the GDP since they don't create a "product", per se,.....well, draw your own conclusions.
Send the check to the American Red Cross - $235 will do.
