I see that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has kept his job, defeating a recall election spearheaded by unions and others upset with him because he took away teachers and civil servants collective bargaining rights. As I understand it that effectively limits their ability to get pay raises and more benefits. What I didn't know until this morning is that there were also successful referendums in San Diego and San Jose, CA to roll back retirement benefits for civil servants there. Will this become a nationwide trend?
I think people are just now realizing how generous civil servants pay and benefits are. I've read that government employee's pay and benefit packages together give them about 25-33% more buying power than those in the private sector doing the same type job. For example, it is common for them to get 3 weeks vacation their first year on the job, not after 5 years as is standard practice in the private sector. Are they more productive? Do they deserve more than the rest of us? And just this morning on the local news they reported that the Dallas ISD is now paying their Communications Director $180K (+ benefits), at the same time they're laying off classroom teachers. Hmmmm.....
The times, they are a changin'.
S
Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the White House in Washington D.C.
ReplyDeleteOne from Bangladesh , another from Pakistan and the third, from China.
...
They go to White House office to examine the fence. The Bangladesh contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. "Well", he says, "I figure the job will run about $900. ($400 for materials, $400 for my team and $100 profit for me)".
The Chinese contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, "I can do this job for $700. ($300 for materials, $300 for my team and $100 profit for me)".
The Pakistani contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the White House official and whispers, "$2,700.
"The official, outraged says, "You didn't even measure like the other guys!
How did you come up with such a high figure?"The Pakistani contractor whispers back, "$1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we hire the guy from China to fix the fence.
"Done!" replies the government official.
I began a fed job with a college degree from a good university making $4,345 per year. Private industry was paying $6,000+ for similar jobs. The 'hook' was good retirement. So, now that I gave up a private career in return for this promise, you want to go and break it?
ReplyDeleteIf you started at $4,345 per year, that was obviously a looooooooong time ago. I suspect that you have since far surpassed what your private sector peers are getting for similar work. The pay differential between private and public sector employment has essentially flipped since you began. I know of administrative assistants...what we used to call secretaries...making $85,000 a year, PLUS benefits!. (Starting pay of >$43,000 for that position.) Retirement is commonly $60,000+ per year, while social security for the rest of us is roughly half that. How did they get such a cushy deal? Since there are now so many of them (2M+?) they have become a favored constituency of the politicians. That's a LOT of votes! Government employees take care of government employees. If they need more money they can print more, raise taxes, or just tack it onto the deficit. And statistics show federal employees are more likely to drop dead at their desk from natural causes than they are to get fired. That's job security the rest of us can't even fathom. And if the federal government can change the terms of our social security benefits as they see fit (for example raising retirement ages from 65 to 67, with threats of higher min. ages to come), why can't they review and bring more into line what federal retirees get? What's the difference?
ReplyDeleteCorrection: I'm not in favor of amending what current retirees get. I do feel that changing the formula for those not yet retired should be on the table, with the goal of bringing them more into line with the private sector.
ReplyDeletePublic employees got paid less but like Scott said had better benefits. They also, until recently, had virtually total job security. Try finding that in the public sector. How many public sector people actually work over 40 hours per week? How many self employed actually work 40 or less? The cost, benefit, risk, reward formulas have gotten all jumbled. We entrepreneurs may complain about the inequities, taxes and regulations but our spirit won't let us quit striving to do and be better. (until we get burned out)
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