Government Employees making more than private sector jobs (except military)
By bobmnu
@bobmnu (8157)
United States
August 10, 2010 12:08pm CST
It seems that Government workers are making much more than private sector jobs.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/income/2010-08-10-1Afedpay10_ST_N.htm?csp=hf
Now we are asked to bail out state and local government to "save jobs" and keep the built in pay raises.
This bring into question how much should public employees be paid and should they be getting raises and benefits that far exceed what the private sector receives. The Union says that this type of comparison is not really useful. 20 years ago it was the comparison of teachers salary to that of other 4 years college grads and included such comparisons as engineers, accountants, and airline pilots. Now as these groups have had to cut back and in some cases pay and benefits cuts, it is not a useful comparison.
Should public employees be allowed to join Unions (some feel that there is a conflict of interest as Unions contribute to political campaigns using dues moneys to elect people to give them raises)? Should their pay be comparable to private sector jobs?
3 responses
@peavey (16936)
• United States
10 Aug 10
Yes, their pay should be comparable to private sector jobs. One should not be included in the privileged just because one has a job with the government - actually, it should be the other way around. Since the government is so far in debt, they should pay less. Maybe it would help stop the bleeding.
And, no, they shouldn't be allowed to join Unions. It IS a conflict of interest and should be illegal.
@matersfish (6306)
• United States
11 Aug 10
Add to that to make it a angry matersfish-like rant 
:
The government jobs are paid for by the private sector's tax dollars!
It just doesn't make any sense that government jobs would pay more--exponentially more in some cases--than the jobs whose revenue pays to keep them active.
It is not the least bit sustainable. It can't be. It doesn't matter where one stands on the ideological aisle. Math is universal. And having subsidies (basically all a government job is) worth more than the subsidizer is basically saying that "wealth" doesn't exist.
The way our government operates--in general and not just the left or the right--is the exact opposite of what regular American citizens can do. They base wealth on debt. There's no other way to describe it. We can't, however.
And there are far too many government employees blinded by their cushier-than-the-rest lives to realize that once we cows are all milked and you can't borrow another ghost penny on top of the ghost dime, the entire country is going to hell.
:
The government jobs are paid for by the private sector's tax dollars!
It just doesn't make any sense that government jobs would pay more--exponentially more in some cases--than the jobs whose revenue pays to keep them active.
It is not the least bit sustainable. It can't be. It doesn't matter where one stands on the ideological aisle. Math is universal. And having subsidies (basically all a government job is) worth more than the subsidizer is basically saying that "wealth" doesn't exist.
The way our government operates--in general and not just the left or the right--is the exact opposite of what regular American citizens can do. They base wealth on debt. There's no other way to describe it. We can't, however.
And there are far too many government employees blinded by their cushier-than-the-rest lives to realize that once we cows are all milked and you can't borrow another ghost penny on top of the ghost dime, the entire country is going to hell.
@Destiny007 (5805)
• United States
11 Aug 10
As a former MO state employee, I can say that the unions have no business in any type of government work.
I further believe that public employees should be paid comparably to the private sector.
During my time with the state, we were lucky to get a 3 or 4% cost of living raise, and then a lot of times we got no raise.
Having seen some of the recent news articles concerning public wages and pensions for some of these states, I cannot see how those are justified. I made about 23,000 a year, yet some of these state are paying far more than that... and they are going bankrupt. This is ridiculous, yet these are some of the very states that Nazi Piglosi and company are now wanting to bail out.
There is no excuse for this.
@matersfish (6306)
• United States
11 Aug 10
The disparity was first brought to my attention when I worked as a chainsaw operator as a teenager.
Our foreman made 20k a year in his private job. All he did was watch over the rest of us, so he didn't complain.
The VDOT guy who stood there all day and watched him watch us made around 50k a year. He didn't have any complaints either. And he didn't have to pay for lunch. Or pay for gas. Or go through weigh stations. Or wear a hard hat!
@matersfish (6306)
• United States
11 Aug 10
I understand the spirit of the average union worker.
I don't understand the "other stuff" about unions.
I don't understand why subsized employees would be in unions and why they somehow "deserve" to make so much more than everyone else.
I don't understand the plight of the teachers in this day and age when more and more kids are fighting, flunking and being f$%ked by their teachers and then they turn around and want more and more and more money.
Public employees in a union kinda seems like an oxymoron.
The rest of us really are suckers.
