Are Federal Workers Overpaid?

[Anonymous]

Of course not. My DH could quadruple his salary in private practice. Most specialty lawyers in fed govt are woefully underpaid. Their admins are way overpaid though. My admin actually works for a living.

[Anonymous]

I have no idea whether my assistant is overpaid, but I made $350k with bonus as a law firm associate and now make about $110k as an AUSA with 4 years experience in my office. I love my job, but on bad days I wonder what the hell I was thinking.

[Anonymous]

Rand Paul has a problem with federal workers being overpaid with tax payer money, but what about executives at Federal contractor companies who are being paid with tax payer money.

Since 1995, the Government has been required by statute to reimburse senior executives under Federal contracts up to the annu­al compensation for the top executives at large publicly-traded companies. In 2010, this meant that the Government had to reimburse up to nearly $694,000 – more than 2 ½ times the $250,000 the Government paid when the cap was first instituted in 1995. As a result of this rapid growth of private sector executive compensation over the past 15 years, taxpayers are being forced to reimburse contractors at a rate which has outpaced the growth of inflation and the wages of most of America’s working families – as well as the growth of Federal salaries.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/31/ending-overpayment-federal-contractor-executives

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0112/013112cc2.htm?rss=workforce&oref=rss

Seriously, COB says I'm under paid (lawyer), Congress wants to continue to freeze my pay while at the same time Federal contractors can seek reimbursement of $694K for salaries paid to each of their five highest paid employees? Seriously?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In my experience with DOJ, the litigation attorneys are definitely underpaid, and it gets worse over time. Once attorneys max out in the DC area at $155K, their salaries stop increasing with experience or seniority. Then, all the really good, highly experienced attorneys get recruited by law firms and leave the govt. It is a waste of the govt's money to have to start with fresh attorneys, train them, and then lose them. Even worse, for really big trials, the govt will sometimes actually pay private practice attorneys (some of them having left the govt for higher pay!) hundreds of thousands of $$$s to litigate for them. Stupid waste of money. If the govt had simply raised their salaries they might not have lost them only to re-hire them at private practice rates.

Most of you, particularly women, work for the Fed. govt. because it is family friendly and Big Law isn't. Also, many govt. attorneys go as high as they can go and then manage to find a partnership in a DC firm. You know this is true and so do the rest of us. As far as I'm concerned maintenance, clerical, administrative and middle management deserve to make a decent living as well. To answer the question, yes, most govt. lawyers are overpaid because I've seen too many of you "work to rule" and do virtually nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of course not. My DH could quadruple his salary in private practice. Most specialty lawyers in fed govt are woefully underpaid. Their admins are way overpaid though. My admin actually works for a living.

Why doesn't he leave? Oh, wait, he really doesn't have to do very much, does he and in private practice he would have to put in 80 billable hrs. per week. Lazy lawyers work for the Fed. govt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:yes, very much overpaid

Your argument is intelligent and intriguing. I like how you included facts and theory to back up your statement as well as show us figures to help show us the information you are trying to convey.

Or…not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anecdotally, based on what I see in my agency, this is correct. Painters make 6 figures . . . these are people who roll pre-ordained colors onto walls.

Yeah, and Lebron James just throws balls into mounted hoops. Obstetricians just pull babies out of vaginas. School teachers just regurgitate what's already in the textbooks. Easy stuff huh? I bet aaaaannnyyyone could do thaaaat job.

Have you ever tried being a painter?.....exposing yourself to harmful chemicals, working around assholes such as yourself?

[Anonymous]

I love how the assumption is that all feds are lawyers.

An FBI agent can be shot and killed for the low, low tax payer price of $80,000 a year.

A boarder patrol agent can be killed (and many are) for almost $20,000 a year.

That sounds totally overpaid to me! I'm sure many of you risk your lives in your daily BigLaw jobs. Those papercuts are a bitch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:http://finance.yahoo.com/news/most-federal-workers-overpaid-cbo-223938063.html

Saw this on Yahoo, and have seen it talked about on here before. Apparently, federal workers with advanced degrees are definitely not overpaid, however less educated workers do better working for the govt.

To put it more accurately, the pay scale looks as though the last 30 years of growing income inequality never happened. While almost all of the gains have gone to the top 1%, the real losers have been working class Americans. The fact that the public sector has had some union protections has kept the working-class public sector workers compensation from cratering as dramatically as private sector. So when you look at a snapshot in 2012, it looks like public-sector employees are overcompensated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course not. My DH could quadruple his salary in private practice. Most specialty lawyers in fed govt are woefully underpaid. Their admins are way overpaid though. My admin actually works for a living.

Why doesn't he leave? Oh, wait, he really doesn't have to do very much, does he and in private practice he would have to put in 80 billable hrs. per week. Lazy lawyers work for the Fed. govt.

No actually he doesn't leave because he values time spent coaching and raising our children along with me, in addition to his paid work and other professional and volunteer commitments. And he doesn't have to make more money because I work full time, too. Any more stupid comments you'd like to make?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love how the assumption is that all feds are lawyers.

An FBI agent can be shot and killed for the low, low tax payer price of $80,000 a year.

A boarder patrol agent can be killed (and many are) for almost $20,000 a year.

That sounds totally overpaid to me! I'm sure many of you risk your lives in your daily BigLaw jobs. Those papercuts are a bitch.

and that's a wrap ladies and gentlemen. Thanks PP for the end of the day laugh.

[Anonymous]

Yes, federal workers are overpaid, with a few exceptions (very high level people, some NIH positions). And for all you federal lawyers, the appropriate comparison is not a partner at a large law firm, which is a tiny percentage pf lawyers overall. Very few people have the ability (or are willing to work the hours) to make partner at a large firm. Associates can make 135-250Kish for a few years, but then the majority of them go into much lower paying jobs. There are some federal attorneys who could walk right into a highly paid partnership at a large firm, but not all that many. Lots of federal lawyer jobs do not really apply well to private practice. For every biglaw partner making 750K in the private sector, there are 50 solo practitioners, low level in-house people, state prosecutors and PDs making between 50K and 100K. From my govt lawyer friends I know that every fed lawyer position that is open gets hundreds, if not thousands of highly qualified applicants -- this would not be the case if federal lawyers were underpaid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course not. My DH could quadruple his salary in private practice. Most specialty lawyers in fed govt are woefully underpaid. Their admins are way overpaid though. My admin actually works for a living.

Why doesn't he leave? Oh, wait, he really doesn't have to do very much, does he and in private practice he would have to put in 80 billable hrs. per week. Lazy lawyers work for the Fed. govt.

No actually he doesn't leave because he values time spent coaching and raising our children along with me, in addition to his paid work and other professional and volunteer commitments. And he doesn't have to make more money because I work full time, too. Any more stupid comments you'd like to make?

Then why are griping about how much he could make in private practice? Just as I said, he is one lazy govt. lawyer, he'd rather play than work. I do feel sorry for him though being married to a shrew like you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course not. My DH could quadruple his salary in private practice. Most specialty lawyers in fed govt are woefully underpaid. Their admins are way overpaid though. My admin actually works for a living.

Why doesn't he leave? Oh, wait, he really doesn't have to do very much, does he and in private practice he would have to put in 80 billable hrs. per week. Lazy lawyers work for the Fed. govt.

No actually he doesn't leave because he values time spent coaching and raising our children along with me, in addition to his paid work and other professional and volunteer commitments. And he doesn't have to make more money because I work full time, too. Any more stupid comments you'd like to make?

Bullshit! If he could double his salary, he'd leave in a heartbeat. He stays in a good, safe job because he can't make it in any law firm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anecdotally, based on what I see in my agency, this is correct. Painters make 6 figures . . . these are people who roll pre-ordained colors onto walls.

Yeah, and Lebron James just throws balls into mounted hoops. Obstetricians just pull babies out of vaginas. School teachers just regurgitate what's already in the textbooks. Easy stuff huh? I bet aaaaannnyyyone could do thaaaat job.

Have you ever tried being a painter?.....exposing yourself to harmful chemicals, working around assholes such as yourself?

Your comparisons are ridiculous and, well, stupid. Painting walls with rollers in standard colors is hardly the same as delivering a baby or educating the youth of America. Messy? yes. Dangerous? Uh, no. These guys have all the protections one could ask for. They are unionized. They are well protected and coddled (they have big screen TV in their breakroom where they watch movies while on breaks, of which there are plenty as per their union contract). While I have zero problem with them making a decent living, making in excess of 6 figures is absurd.

You clearly know nothing about what the folks in my building do. I am intimately familiar with them given my work and I know their job and their working conditions are not difficult. So you keep rolling your eyes. You just look dumb.