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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]For the posters who think federal workers are overpaid and receive benefits that are excessive, there are many studies showing that when you do an apples to apples (education, skill level etc) comparison, the more educated federal worker is undercompensated compared to his/her private sector counterpart.
There is no doubt that lower level federal workers are paid more than their private sector counterparts but their presence in the federal civil service is shrinking.  The federal govt. just does not need as many clerical workers as it once did.

One example I found is the benefits package for Exxon Mobil - a large private sector company which also seeks to hire an educated and highly skilled workforce and pays them well.
Exxon Mobil workers get a generous pension AND 401K and great paid vacation time and great health care benefits.

https://local.exxonmobil.com/Family-English/HR/Files/Benefit_flyer.pdf[/quote]
The only area where government workers earn less than their counterparts in private industry is among those who hold advanced degrees. For those who hold 4-year college degrees, the pay is about the same but benefits are substantially higher among government workers, meaning that college grads do better with government work. The real discrepancy comes with high school grads, who earn significantly more and get substantially better benefits than their private sector counterparts.

So other than the minority who hold advanced degrees, government employees are overcompensated in comparison to private sector employees. But just watch....try to make an adjustment to bring things into parity, and the screaming will drown out a jet engine. Government employees are not entitled to superior compensation, particularly given how difficult it is to dump incompetent staff.

https://www.cbo.gov/publication/42921
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The number of federal workers with just a high school diploma has fallen dramatically over the last twenty years while the number of federal workers with advanced degrees has doubled over the same period.  
Even here though what the CBO study does not fully account for is that the work federal workers do is often more complex than the work a private sector counterpart might do.  Many private sector workers without a college education might for example work in retail.  In the federal govt. they might be responsible for maintaining our nuclear stockpile
Also, the federal workforce trends older than the private sector workforce and the higher wages might reflect this (seniority and experience).
I would also argue that it is not so much that federal workers are doing well and more than private sector workers have seen their wages stagnate especially workers on the low end of the income spectrum.  There is less income inequality within the federal work force.  The spread between the bottom quintile and the top quintile isn't as large.  I would argue that rather than emulating what have been troubling trends in the private sector, perhaps it should be the other way around.
Around 25% of the federal workforce has a graduate or professional degree and I am sure a disproportionate number of these workers live and work in DC, MD and VA so there will indeed be loud protests on DCUM if James Sherk's fevered fantasies come true especially in concert with the tax bill which will negatively impact UMC families in high SALT areas.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/12/18/trump-labor-advisers-plan-for-cutting-federal-compensation-potentially-even-paid-holidays/?utm_term=.6a564f9bb3cb

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