Obama to freeze fed worker pay

The Associated Press • November 29, 2010

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will announce a two-year pay freeze for federal employees that the White House says is necessary to put the country on sound fiscal footing.

The White House said Monday that the freeze would apply to all civilian federal employees, including those working at the Department of Defense, but would not affect military personnel. The freeze will save $2 billion during fiscal year 2011, according to the White House.

According to the most Ohio labor review for October, there are about 16,700 federal workers in this region.

Obama is expected to announce the pay freeze at the White House later Monday.

The chairman of Obama's bipartisan deficit commission has proposed a three-year freeze in pay for most federal employees as part of its plan to reduce the nation's growing deficit. The commission's final report is due to be released later this week.

Shortly after taking office in January 2009, Obama froze salaries of top White House. He extended that freeze to political appointees across the government in last year's budget, and also eliminated bonuses for political appointees.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20101...eakingnews

There needs to be more than a pay freeze. The entire compensation structure needs to be redone to align it with private sector. It doesn't mean much to freeze pay when a government worker is being paid 50-75% more than a private industry worker for a comparable position.

(11-29-2010 12:20 PM)Kenyon#4 Wrote:  There needs to be more than a pay freeze. The entire compensation structure needs to be redone to align it with private sector. It doesn't mean much to freeze pay when a government worker is being paid 50-75% more than a private industry worker for a comparable position.

How did you arrive at those figures? When I retired from the federal government 5 years ago, the federal worker was making 80% of what a comparable private industry worker was making. They certainly have not received any awe inspiring raises over the past 5 years.

(11-29-2010 12:30 PM)ctipton Wrote:  

(11-29-2010 12:20 PM)Kenyon#4 Wrote:  There needs to be more than a pay freeze. The entire compensation structure needs to be redone to align it with private sector. It doesn't mean much to freeze pay when a government worker is being paid 50-75% more than a private industry worker for a comparable position.

How did you arrive at those figures? When I retired from the federal government 5 years ago, the federal worker was making 80% of what a comparable private industry worker was making. They certainly have not received any awe inspiring raises over the past 5 years.

Incorrect. The number of federal workers making over $150k a year has increased 10x in the last 5 years.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010...0_ST_N.htm

For the remainder of the positions, private sector wages have been stagnent over the last 10 years or so, or slightly declined when adjusted for inflation. Goverment jobs haven't, wages have increased, in some cases dramatically.

(11-29-2010 12:36 PM)Kenyon#4 Wrote:  

(11-29-2010 12:30 PM)ctipton Wrote:  

(11-29-2010 12:20 PM)Kenyon#4 Wrote:  There needs to be more than a pay freeze. The entire compensation structure needs to be redone to align it with private sector. It doesn't mean much to freeze pay when a government worker is being paid 50-75% more than a private industry worker for a comparable position.

How did you arrive at those figures? When I retired from the federal government 5 years ago, the federal worker was making 80% of what a comparable private industry worker was making. They certainly have not received any awe inspiring raises over the past 5 years.

Incorrect. The number of federal workers making over $150k a year has increased 10x in the last 5 years.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010...0_ST_N.htm

For the remainder of the positions, private sector wages have been stagnent over the last 10 years or so, or slightly declined when adjusted for inflation. Goverment jobs haven't, wages have increased, in some cases dramatically.

I 'm not sure and I'm talking strictly from memory, but the government rank and file jobs have not increased dramatically and they still lag behind their civilian counterparts. There is no argument in reference to the top paying jobs but that is only the top 5% not the bottom 95%. Even your figures show that the top paying jobs are only 3.9% and those are sometimes populations of less than 10.

(11-29-2010 02:43 PM)ctipton Wrote:  

(11-29-2010 12:36 PM)Kenyon#4 Wrote:  

(11-29-2010 12:30 PM)ctipton Wrote:  

(11-29-2010 12:20 PM)Kenyon#4 Wrote:  There needs to be more than a pay freeze. The entire compensation structure needs to be redone to align it with private sector. It doesn't mean much to freeze pay when a government worker is being paid 50-75% more than a private industry worker for a comparable position.

How did you arrive at those figures? When I retired from the federal government 5 years ago, the federal worker was making 80% of what a comparable private industry worker was making. They certainly have not received any awe inspiring raises over the past 5 years.

Incorrect. The number of federal workers making over $150k a year has increased 10x in the last 5 years.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010...0_ST_N.htm

For the remainder of the positions, private sector wages have been stagnent over the last 10 years or so, or slightly declined when adjusted for inflation. Goverment jobs haven't, wages have increased, in some cases dramatically.

I 'm not sure and I'm talking strictly from memory, but the government rank and file jobs have not increased dramatically and they still lag behind their civilian counterparts. There is no argument in reference to the top paying jobs but that is only the top 5% not the bottom 95%. Even your figures show that the top paying jobs are only 3.9% and those are sometimes populations of less than 10.

You are thinking just straight wage, you have to factor in the total compensation package. Government employees are given generous benefits when it comes to health care, paid time off, retirement, etc. That is the main reason govt jobs now outpay private sector jobs, in some cases, by quite a bit. Rea wages in the private sector have had zero growth, and when you factor in inflation and the rising costs of benefits, private sector wages are actually in decline. You don't have that issue with government jobs.

That, and the fact you have indefinate job security. It takes forever for a federal employee to be fired or laid off. The hiring process itself is just as bad. I applied for a government job once as an auditor, it took them 5 months to get back to me. I read on average it takes 8-12 months to fill a government position, if a companies HR department took that long, they'd be fired.

The top level positions have gone up considerably... I don't believe the analysts on the gov't side are making any more than the analysts on the private side, however.

I will say, some IT jobs have moved from contractors to government positions in recent years because each contractor just ate up the others due to lack of competent people. In order to keep from people just going job to job and getting big raises they've started making many of the positions gov't to cut down on the turnover.

I heard the O man say a work I don't normally associate with government workers,,Bonus. Isn't a Bonus paid in the private sector in association with
Profits??? How does one get a GOVT Bonus? Longevity?

From my understanding this pay freeze is a complete farce. The only freeze is on the pay raises for each GS level. There still are sublevels within in each GS level. So, for example, a person who is a GS8 Level 7 makes more money than a GS10 Level 1. So government workers are still eligible for raises within their GS class.

This is nothing more than a PR stunt.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. This is what I heard listening to Neal Boortz yesterday.

I spent 20 years in the Federal Government after retiring from the Army. I was a Contract Administrator with Defense Contracting.

It is my understanding that if a pay freeze goes into effect, and all signs point exactly to that, then all in-step pay promotions (and the inclusive pay raise) would be frozen also. There will no more pay increases for the period of the freeze. That will, in all probability, be in addition to no raises in the annual COLA.