(no subject)

[vicarz]

PS about the Fed pay debate - OPM reports that government workers make 25% less than their private sector counterparts. http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2011/03/can-you-compare-federal-government-vs-private-sector-pay.html
(summary article, but links to the important sources are in there)
Again, the Heritage foundation (and the other I'm not familiar with) were the sponsors of their attacks on Fed pay - but these were just responses to the OPM reports. This is an article from an advocacy-looking group as well - but it seems more data-based and is easily as important a response as the one from the heritage foundation.

Again, even the Heritage foundation alleged that if you held EDUCATION and EXPERIENCE steady for job type, that with benefits pay was 25% higher for Fed workers. While this data is refutable and debatable, it's not the same as the idiotic bleating of "feds make double private sector" garbage we hear in the fauxnews, on the hill, and through shrill wingers on the air. Grr.

Comments

[fsfitz.livejournal.com]

I had a friend who worked at Heritage a year after we got our BAs. He was a Research Assistant but his pay was so low that he had to get a second job at Cosi to make car payments.

While Heritage rakes in lots of money from donors, they don't spend it on salaries. But they have great free lunches.

[vicar.livejournal.com]

Food aside, I don't think I have the stomach for them. They've cost me 3 years COLA over exaggerated claims which run counter to my reality. I am not sympathetic or amused by their existence even if they treat their own like dirt.

[doc-quixote.livejournal.com]

As someone who has spent the last 15 years working with federal employees... There are a lot of feds in the sciences who probably don't do as well as they would in the private sector (in some cases, because the private sector expects the feds to do the work). I'm willing to accept there are lawyers who could do better in the private sector. And probably a non-trivial percentage of the overall workforce who are roughly as good (or as bad) as their private-sector counterparts.

But.

In the technology sector (especially the "technology management" sector), a lot of the feds I encounter make comparable (to slightly better) money than their private sector "peers" - except the private sector folks they get compared with aren't their peers. Lot of the fed tech management folks I deal with are absolutely f**king worthless. If I ran my side of the contract the way my fed counterpart runs his (not sure if he's technically my "peer", but comparable years of experience and education, and comparable job descriptions), my employer would fire me (and I'm not talking about "give me multiple opportunities to make good before letting me turn in a letter", I mean "call me on the carpet, and when I come out, the security guy is there with a box of my desk stuff").

[vicar.livejournal.com]

I am not a fan of our IT staff on the Fed side myself, and feel bad for the much more talented and underpaid contractor staff. No offense taken - we probably agree.

[jukebox-heroine.livejournal.com]

i know i could make more in the private sector. almost $10k more. which is the pay cut i took when i came to the government. and yes, i came for the benefits and the security. i will probably not be furloughed. although we have been before, we are considered essential, and most likely will escape it.