Americans Suffer, While Government Workers Prosper
Chris Banescu
Yet another travesty is unfolding before our eyes in these United States of America. While tens of millions of Americans continue to struggle through difficult economic conditions, with hundreds of thousands more losing their jobs every month, tens of thousands more losing their homes and their businesses, and millions more facing salary cuts and pay freezes, government employees are prospering and getting rewarded financially more than ever.
As the economy struggles, incomes fall, and business bankruptcies and mortgage default rates remain at all time highs, the federal government spending is booming and its employees are enjoying increased hiring and higher salaries.
According to USA Today the number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has skyrocketed during our current recession. As a result, on average, federal workers now earn $30,000 more per year than their private sector counterparts. The paper’s analysis into the federal salary data reveals some disturbing facts:
- 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.
- 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.
- When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later, 1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000.
- The trend to six-figure salaries is occurring throughout the federal government, in agencies big and small, high-tech and low-tech. The primary cause: substantial pay raises and new salary rules.
- The growth in six-figure salaries has pushed the average federal worker’s pay to $71,206, compared with $40,331 in the private sector.
By contrast, the economic situation for millions of Americans has been very bleak and continues to worsen. The problems in the private sector are indicative of the many difficulties and dangers that businesses and individuals still face as they grapple with the realities of a weakened economy and a devastated job market; a situation made worse by constant government interference, bailouts of failed corporations, increasing levels of regulation, continuing high taxation, and run-away government spending. Since the recession began unemployment has risen dramatically, real wages have stagnated, and business failures and closures have increased.
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