Thread: For feds, more get 6-figure salaries

Interesting, but I know that in the Coast Guard the average age of a civilian employee is close to 49. Since 45-55 is when people generally earn the most in their careers, I would not be surprised or alarmed by an average of 71k.

NSPS!!!?

Originally Posted by peterson82

Interesting, but I know that in the Coast Guard the average age of a civilian employee is close to 49. Since 45-55 is when people generally earn the most in their careers, I would not be surprised or alarmed by an average of 71k.

That's an interesting point I never considered. I wonder what the statistics are on the average age-group represented by the federal work force.

This is the world we created. I hear how PO'd people on this MB and at my workplace are about a "mere 2% raise" and it's no wonder there's political pressure to raise wages. Watch out for the thundering herd- Lots of PhD's and MBA's are out there looking for jobs.

When the Federal Aviation Administration chief's salary rose, nearly 1,700 employees' had their salaries lifted above $170,000, too.

I feel for you FAA guys. I can only imagine how many SOP's and terrible policies were created by those 1700 employees in an attempt to quantify their wages.

Originally Posted by fabijo

That's an interesting point I never considered. I wonder what the statistics are on the average age-group represented by the federal work force.

there is a large group at my workplace born about 1960. Me too

Originally Posted by Bullitt

This is the world we created. I hear how PO'd people on this MB and at my workplace are about a "mere 2% raise" and it's no wonder there's political pressure to raise wages. Watch out for the thundering herd- Lots of PhD's and MBA's are out there looking for jobs.

I feel for you FAA guys. I can only imagine how many SOP's and terrible policies were created by those 1700 employees in an attempt to quantify their wages.

We controllers got screwed the last 3 years!

but thing are lookin' up

Guarantee you if they looked at the BOP or DOD that the numbers would be way down from an average of $71,000, Politicians and bureaucrats in DC are running up the numbers!! Numbers don't tell the whole story, and they use it to generally say that Federal Workers are making WAY too much money!!!!!!! Sure glad I'm retiring this month!! We need to write Glenn Beck and straighten him out!!

Originally Posted by Bullitt

This is the world we created. I hear how PO'd people on this MB and at my workplace are about a "mere 2% raise" and it's no wonder there's political pressure to raise wages. Watch out for the thundering herd- Lots of PhD's and MBA's are out there looking for jobs.

I feel for you FAA guys. I can only imagine how many SOP's and terrible policies were created by those 1700 employees in an attempt to quantify their wages.

I wanted to check the stats on this- so here they are. You mention FAA people. FAA's biggest single location of employees is WASHINGTON D.C. And while those FAA people in the field make far, far less, the ones in the glass house in the FAA's D.C. headquarters building pull down huge salaries, much higher even that others in D.C.

There are a LOT of FAA employees in the DC headquarters building who make six figures or more:

According to data on the http://php.app.com/fed_employees/search.php website, in 2008, the FAA within Washington D.C. boundaries had the greatest concentration of highly paid federal employees in the government.



This is 2008 data for base pay:

98 FAA employees in Washington DC earned the maximum $172,200. That includes some familiar names. Gerald Lavey, Ventris Gibson, Mel Harris are all on the 172,200 list.

110 earned above $170,000

401 earned above $150,000 a year.

623 earned $140,000 a year or more.

970 earned $130,000 a year or more.

1,476 earned $120,000 a year or more.

1,953 earned $110,000 a year or more.

And 2,361, or 69% of FAA Washington D.C. employees earned $100,000 a year or more.

There are 3,379 total employees work for the FAA in Washington DC.

Originally Posted by nnuut

Guarantee you if they looked at the BOP or DOD that the numbers would be way down from an average of $71,000, Politicians and bureaucrats in DC are running up the numbers!! Numbers don't tell the whole story, and they use it to generally say that Federal Workers are making WAY too much money!!!!!!! Sure glad I'm retiring this month!! We need to write Glenn Beck and straighten him out!!

I did just that, sent an email and got a machine answer, saying he tries to read them all but he gets 4,000 a week, ??? or was that a day?

Originally Posted by nnuut

NSPS!!!?

At least in our office NSPS it had a big impact. About 25% of the office had stepped out, so NSPS really bumped us up by a big amount. but going back to the GS grade scale, our raises are suppose to be smaller until the GS rates catches up. So it'll all come out in the wash and NSPS is a real hassle and even more open to playing favs.

Also someone mentioned age, I can't speak for anyone else, but our district is pretty top heavy in the 50+ age group. That's getting up there in earning ability, plus most of the folks have a college degree, either a 2 or 4 year.

I would like to see what the educational level is amongst Feds as compared to the rest of the country. I would bet the Feds are better educated.

Move the jobs outta DC and put them out in the flyover states, that would eventually lower costs. The cost of living in the DC Area is way to high, which is a big driver in salaries.

When I came from private industry to the Fed's, it took over 4 years for my salary to catch, but bennies and standard of living were better. It's a trade-off we all make.

Originally Posted by CountryBoy

Move the jobs outta DC and put them...

...out in the trenches delivering those ridiculous piles of coupons and Walmart fliers that go right into my recycling bin.

Re: Cost of living. Another political decision intended to make Americans feel richer. The chart on Real Wages says it all.

Wage growth, currently running at about 3% YoY and declining quickly, stinks. In fact, only twice in the last 45 years has there been real wage growth (i.e., in excess of the inflation rate)for more than a year or so: once, in the post-war economic golden era of the 1960s and early 1970s; and again during the tech boom of the 1990s. Here is a graph showing that entire 45 years history (as long as the series exists), comparing wages (in orange) with CPI inflation (in blue):


As you can easily see, real wage growth essentially stagnated in 1974, and ever since the Reagan revolution, almost all growth from productivity has been vacuumed up by the very top of the income scale.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/5...al-Wage-Growth