Quote:
Originally Posted by The Dad Fisherman
I can tell you from my experience, where I'm working now, that the Government employees make a shade less than the private sector for the IT field. I work for an IT contractor and I make about 3% more than my equivelant government counterpart. My health insurance is also better and my contribution is roughly half of theirs. They do have it better in time off where they start w/ 15 days off and I started w/ 13...and they receive 13 sick days to my 5. I am Private sector versus the public sector (DOD).
I can also tell you that I am making less here than my last job in the private sector. So in my experience the Government is less than or equal too the private sector as far as pay. Not twice as much.
As I stated this is in the IT field so I can't vouch for other fields in Government.
As to the Monkeys and Peanuts analogy.....the IT field would be extremely affected by sub par pay and benefits. IT Guys notoriously move around in search of better pay/benefits, so if you didn't make things comparable to Private sector you would have an IT Workforce in the DOD that was made up of tech school graduates that probably wouldn't spend more than 2 years on the job before leaving. How efficient is that for an organisation to operate....6 months to ramp up your talent then they leave a year/year and a half down the road.
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That's an interesting observation, but as you said, it's in our national security interests to have qualified IT guys working for the DOD. Furthermore, I have never seen data that suggests that federal spending of DOD IT employees is the #1 driver of the federal deficit. However, state spending on benefits of municipal employees is a huge driver of state/town deficits.
In other words, DOD IT employees are not pushing the federal government to the brink of bankruptcy. But retirement/healthcare benefits to municipal employees absolutely are pushing local governments to the brink of bankruptcy.
That couple in my neighborhood (both public schoolteachers) make a combined salary of about $150k. That's more than double the median household income in CT, and they work far fewer hours. And with the bennies they get, the difference is much greater. And no matter how bad they are at their job, with tenure, it's virtually impossible to get rid of them (not that they are bad teachers, i have no idea).
And cops being able to collect pensions after 20 years, at age 43? While everyone else hopes to retire at 65?
If everyone here is comfortable with forking over another paycheck or two every year, so that teachers and cops can keep benefits that dwarf what's available to the taxpayers, then we should do it. That's how democracy works.
I just don't see why they deserve so much more than what's available to those of us stuck with the bill, and I'm not sure any post here directly addressed that.
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