Why Not A Pay Cut for Federal Employees?
Among Michelle Malkin‘s Buzzworthy posts today, she includes a link to this one at Sweetness & Light, NY Times To Cut Pay 5%, Lay Off Workers. The post reminded me of the number of friends and acquaintances whose employers have cut their pay due to tough economic times.
Now, I’m wondering, given the record-setting deficits facing the federal government, whether or not the Administration has proposed cutting the pay of federal workers as a means to save a few bucks. I mean, it doesn’t seem fair that their salaries remain constant while many of those who pay them have smaller paychecks.
Just wonderin’, you know.
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It’d be great, but unions and their sympathizers are still too large a bloc to suggest doing away with COLAs and other salary/benefit guarantees. Enshrining and enriching those in public service is one of the reasons we have the Obama administration and so we’re expanding the public payroll in a spirit of can-do with a goal of as many dependents (voters) as possible.
Community organizers gotta eat, too.
Comment by Ignatius — March 26, 2009 @ 5:18 pm - March 26, 2009
A minimal pay cut for federal employees would be useful, especially if the Big Guy (at $400,000 per annum) were to take the lead on this issue. Not only could he afford the cut–he did, after all sign a $500,000 advance against royalties just prior to taking office, for a cut-and-paste job of a kids’ version of one of his best-selling memoirs. He would still gets a swell place to live, get early boarding privileges on Air Force One and Marine One, and his daughters would continue to attend private school (instead of the rotten DC public school system).
Comment by Blinkered Thinker — March 26, 2009 @ 5:24 pm - March 26, 2009
Better yet, why not apply the Dhimmicrats’ own “logic” and tax all government employees – especially those in the WH and Congress – 90% on all current and future bonuses, and make it retroactive to 2008?
Lower-casers hyperventilating in 3…2…1…
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — March 26, 2009 @ 5:37 pm - March 26, 2009
So I just saw a notice that the NC State Medicaid Director was named today.
Any guess on the taxpayer-funded salary? $270,000.
I nearly crapped.
Comment by Bruce (GayPatriot) — March 26, 2009 @ 5:45 pm - March 26, 2009
A pay cut for federal employees would be a nice gesture, but the cost of implementing it would probably outweigh it’s significance. However, a 0% COLA in 2010 is always a possibility. Remember, President Reagan did just that in 1985.
Comment by Beaker — March 26, 2009 @ 7:05 pm - March 26, 2009
Good idea, everyone else is taking a paycut, time to offer up.
Delaware, a blue state with a Dem Gov, Republican senate and dem house, will be cutting state employees pay 10%. Along with pension reform and medical coverage reform. Along with a whole host of other cuts in the state.
The Republican’t party really did yoemans work reducing the size of gov’t and spending the last 8 years, didn’t they?
Comment by Chuck In Del — March 26, 2009 @ 7:05 pm - March 26, 2009
ahemm The new head of AIG is paying himself $1 ONE DOLLAR a year. But that is for a bankrupt company, floating loans to stay afloat. Ooops that’s similar to the US govenment. Wouldn’t you love to see Barney Frank, Chris Dodd making one dollar a year, until the budget is balanced? I think there are some great suggestions in this thread already.
Comment by Gene in Pennsylvania — March 26, 2009 @ 7:43 pm - March 26, 2009
You know, I AM one of the “lazy civil servants.” I work for the Department of Defense. For the last three years, I’ve averaged a fifty hour week. Twelve hour days frequent, fourteen to twenty at times. Worked many weekends, most holidays, and more overnight watches than I can shake a stick at.
Overtime? Ha! It’s only in the last eighteen months that we got full pay for overtime…it was 80% before that.
I’ve PAID my share. With toil, tears, sweat…and avoided paying in blood only through a bit of luck.
Have you?
Comment by Mike M. — March 26, 2009 @ 7:45 pm - March 26, 2009
P.S. I could buy into a 0% cost of living adjustment if EVERYBODY sacrificed. A freeze not just on Civil Service pay, but on Social Security and all other welfares. And a 5% cut for elected officials.
Comment by Mike M. — March 26, 2009 @ 8:01 pm - March 26, 2009
Actually, Mike, I appreciate all government workers who do their job and even go above and beyond what they should as part of their job. My problem is that there are too many workers who are nothing more than dead would and/or upper level bureaucrats who clearly get more money than deserved. Bruce’s example above illustrates one of my beefs with government.
Comment by Pat — March 26, 2009 @ 8:49 pm - March 26, 2009
50 hour work weeks? Alert the media! How cruel!
Try owning a small business. You never get to go home.
Comment by Ignatius — March 26, 2009 @ 9:09 pm - March 26, 2009
Must be quite a paradox to be a conservative working for the government.
My conservative father was all about gun rights, pro-life, less government. But he was also a Police officer and head negotiator for the union when the contracts came up. So while arguing for lower taxes less government at home, he pushed for more pay and better pensions at work. I don’t think he ever got the conflict because when it came to getting paid/benefits, it was all about him trying to get the best deal. Not giving a seconds thought about growing the goverment or how the town was going to pay for what he got.
I am with you Ignatius. I work 50+ hours a week now, and that is because things are slow due to this economic meltdown, recession, depression what ever you call it.
Comment by Chuck In Del — March 26, 2009 @ 9:39 pm - March 26, 2009
Here’s my cunning plan: cut government workers’ salaries in half…and use that to double the pay for our troops, police, and fire fighters.
I think that’s more than an even trade.
Comment by MarkJ — March 26, 2009 @ 10:37 pm - March 26, 2009
Humm…AIG executives give back the bonuses. How about Congress forego any raises for the next 5 years. If they dont like the pay, do the tax payer a favor and try to locate employment in the private sector. With all their talent for running the country into the ground – especially Barney Frank – I am certain that most businesses would value their experience…lol. Barney needs to run the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He more than qualifies in the incompetence category.
Comment by Duffy - Native Intelligence — March 26, 2009 @ 11:14 pm - March 26, 2009
The problem with government employees isn’t normally the pay. There certainly are exceptions like Fannie/Freddie executives (Jamie Gorelick, Franklin Raines) making tens of millions in bonus money why the institutions were failing. The main problems are (1) volume / quality of workl product for some, and (2) vastly over-generous retirement and medical benefits for nearly all. These areas are vastly harder to police than salary and thus tend to be the areas of abuse.
Comment by MJ — March 27, 2009 @ 1:02 pm - March 27, 2009
The problem with Federal workers isn’t the workers at all. Certainly there are plenty of bad examples we identify that fit the stereotype, but IMHO the real problem is the never-ending politics and budget cycles that result. Too many federal agencies seem more interested in maintaining their slice of the budget pie, because that’s the environment congress has created. Otherwise excellent public servants can’t do their job because they are handcuffed by politics.
Also, just my opinion as the son and grandson of long-time, proud civil servants, and someone who supports the DoD in my current private industry role, many high performing Federal managers make far, far less than the equivalent jobs in commercial industry. It’s all an argument for true merit pay, but if you want to provide merit pay, you have to take off the regulatory handcuffs that limit a leader’s decision-making authority.
Comment by Neptune — March 27, 2009 @ 4:13 pm - March 27, 2009
Neptune,
“The problem with Federal workers isn’t the workers at all.”
Government employees work less and take less responsibility than private workers. In addition to plenty of empirical support, the government employees I know freely admit this, and I know many. This doesn’t make those who work for government necessarily different than other Americans. Most people work to what is expected. The difference is that vastly less is expected, required, and enforced.
Everything else you say is correct. There are plenty of good employees in the system. But fewer than would otherwise occur because those just looking to get by are disproportionately drawn to government seeking the employment protections, benefits, and avoiding rewards contingent on contribution. The valuable employees government does hire tend to underperform because the system permits them to and in many cases encourages underperformance..
Comment by mj — March 27, 2009 @ 11:49 pm - March 27, 2009
I am a Federal employee and am willing to take a zero COLA for the next two years or longer – if needed. I can work around that financially. Remember too that many Federal employees have private sector partners/spouses/children that are affected by the current economy. How dare you suggest cutting someone’s pay – as it could impact their ability to pay bills, mortgages, you name it. The Metropolitan DC area would see even more forclosures than it already has and it would further financial losses. My “stable” job has been the single, hopeful glimmer in my family – where my husband has already lost his job , where we have a special needs child, and we’re now surviving on a single income with bills based on two incomes. There’s far more to the picture than just saying “Cut Feds Pay.” I have a rather unsettling view of the future of America at this point — one where millions and millions will suffer to pay for the mistakes of others. I already know that I have no hope of ever retiring. There seems to be no entity out there that has a win-win situation for anyone at the moment.
Comment by Debra Steward — April 6, 2009 @ 4:39 pm - April 6, 2009