Are government workers overpaid? According to many observers, the notion that government workers are living high on the hog is a myth [as reported recently by Madonna Gauding on Occasional Planet].
President Obama’s recent freeze on federal workers’ salaries was aimed, ostensibly, at trimming government spending. But the net effect of that move—which addresses a minuscule fraction of government expenditures and is seen as misguided by a chorus of critics—has been to add credibility to the prevailing propaganda that characterizes government workers as earning more than their fair share.
If you agree with George Lakoff—that facts don’t matter in today’s political climate—stop reading here.
But if you’re a fan of documentation, a recent post by Congress.org will be of interest. Congress.org has taken a hard look at federal employees’ salaries, and concludes: “How well do the best-paid federal employees do? Pretty well, compared to the rest of us, but still far below the millions received by the best-paid workers in the private sector.”
The salaries for the top five jobs range from about $199,000 to the mid-$200,000s. [Example: the job listed as the second highest paying among non-elected positions is Chief Medical O
fficer, Department of Veterans Affairs, with a salary of: $220,382.] Considering the responsibilities that go with that job and the other top four, the salaries—while an enviable chunk o’change for most Americans—aren’t that generous, compared to what might be expected in the corporate world. Click on the link, and decide for yourself. If you’d like to do more research, you can go to the original source, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management [OPM], where you can rummage through 2010 Pay Tables for Executive and Senior Level Employees.