Image via Wikipedia
P Krug writes in his latest NYT column about how President Obama (DfOaLG*) is betraying his supporters with his “appeasement” of the GOP by freezing federal worker pay. The column is typical Krugman – so, whatever. What kills me is how the Krug has the cojones to say:
The truth is that America’s long-run deficit problem has nothing at all to do with overpaid federal workers. For one thing, those workers aren’t overpaid. Federal salaries are, on average, somewhat less than those of private-sector workers with equivalent qualifications.
It may be true that he long-run deficit problem has nothing to do with overpaid federal workers – well, actually, it does: the rate of pay increase of federal workers over private sector workers is just one manifestation of the government’s propensity to spend more and more and more. The more tax revenue they can extract, the more they’ll spend, and the more they’ll “need” to spend, presumably on our behalf. Regarding federal worker pay, here’s a little truth for Krugman from the Cato Institute’s Downsizing the Federal Government site:
In 2009, federal civilian workers had an average wage of $81,258, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.5 By comparison, the average wage of the nation’s 101 million private-sector workers was $50,462. Figure 1 shows average federal- and private-sector wages since 2000, and it reveals that the federal pay advantage over private workers has been increasing steadily.
When benefits such as health care and pensions are included, the federal compensation advantage over private workers is even larger, according to the BEA data. In 2009, federal worker compensation averaged $123,049, or double the private-sector average of $61,051. Figure 2 shows that average federal compensation has grown rapidly over the last decade.
An analysis by USA Today revealed particularly fast wage growth at the top end of the federal workforce in recent years.6 By 2009, there were 383,000 federal civilian workers with salaries of more than $100,000, 66,000 with salaries of more than $150,000, and 22,000 with salaries of more than $170,000. Between late 2007 and mid-2009, the number of federal workers earning more than $150,000 more than doubled, even as the economy fell into a deep recession during that period.
Only in Krugman’s twisted little world could these numbers be construed as evidence that federal workers aren’t overpaid. But only in Krugman’s world could the Stimulus have been considered a failure because they spent way too little.
*Descended from Olympus and Lightworker Genius
