"Factoids," "Kirt's Cogitations," and
"Tech Topics Smorgasbord"
are all manifestations of my ranting on various subjects relevant (usually) to the
overall RF Cafe theme. All may be accessed on these pages:
We have all seen news reports
about the often exorbitant salaries of government employees as compared to the earnings
of folks in equivalent private sector jobs. According to a March 2012 report by
the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average total compensation for the average private
industry worker was $28.57 per hour worked whereas for the federal government worker
it was $40.90 per hour - a 43% difference! When you look at the ranges of job titles
and pay for government workers as compared to equivalent private industry workers
there seems to be no logical correlation between which jobs pay more with the government
versus private industry. There are currently about 22 million U.S. government employees
- a staggering number indeed.
Asbury Park Press recently made available a database (not available anymore,
try (federalpay.org) of year-2011 earnings
for government employees, searchable by department/agency, division, job title,
location, and even employee name. If you know someone who works for the government,
this is your chance to find out how much they make. I wanted to find out what people
in technical agencies were making, so I concentrated on organizations like the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA),
National Institute of Standards (NIST), etc. The results are in the table below
where I counted people whose base salaries are at or above $100,000 per year. It
took a lot more time than I really had to spend on it, but after a while it gets
addictive.
One thing to keep in mind is that government agencies are notoriously top-heavy
in management, which tends to push the pay scale upward. Looking at the filtered
results bears out that fact since it reveals that most top earners are in management
positions. Also, I don't know about the social and financial type agencies, but
the government employs a lot of Ph.D.s for science and engineering, so that also
biases the pay upward. As an avid reader of technical publications, I can vouch
for a lot of extremely high quality research and development performed by the good
folks at NASA, NIST, et al. Private industry, under pressure from investors to turn
profits at the expense of performing vital in-house R&D, has seen a dramatic
reduction in staff dedicated to pure research. So this is one area where, even though
I am basically a small-government person, I am glad to see some of our best and
brightest being gainfully employed for the good of the country. In order to attract
top talent into the positions, it is necessary to pay at a level commensurate with
private industry.
What I detest is the number of people in social welfare and arts departments
(typically slackers) making the same kind of pay as guys and gals actually producing
useful information that will pay benefits down the road. That's not to say all of
the former are lame-oids and all of the latter are alphas, but where are you most
likely to see a government employee playing Solitaire on the computer - in a social
services office or in a research lab? Oh, there is also a huge percentage of lawyers
throughout all the government agencies. In which category would you tend to place
them?
When the database is sorted according to salary, department heads bubble to the
top - no surprise. It is the same as in private industry. I did find instances of
people with engineering titles within the top ten positions for various agencies,
but they tended to be not in places like NASA or the FCC, but in the Department
of Health and Human Services; don't even try to make sense of it. Also no surprise
is that it looks like the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia areas have the
largest concentration of high earners. It is why that area of the country has some
of the highest average household income zip codes and why the unemployment rate
is so low locally. A few weeks ago Melanie and I went to my uncle's burial ceremony
at Arlington National Cemetery and noted all the huge new buildings - all most all
government - under construction. It's no wonder the cursed politicians don't seem
to feel any urgency when it comes to the economy. From where they live, everything
looks just fine.
A government job looks like good work if you can get it. Take the 2011 salary
database for a test drive yourself and, if you have the stomach for it, look up
what people in your most-despised government agencies are getting paid with your
hard-earned tax money.
Hank Terlage (ostensibly), the guy in the now-famous video below, appears to
have a base salary of $47,677. Well, he formerly had a salary of that amount. You
won't find his name in the 2012 database because he has been fired. Not to worry,
though, because Hawaii pays a tidy sum for unemployment and/or welfare. Throw in
an EBT card (food stamps and other goodies), free medical care, maybe some free
training if he wants it, who knows what else, and unemployment can be a pretty sweet
deal. Maybe he can pursue a career in music. GSA manager
Jeff[rey] Neely (ostensibly), who was responsible for the infamous
Hawaiian vacation for department heads, made $172,000 in 2011 and even earned a
$2,700 award for a job well done. You won't find him the the 2012 database, either.
Posted October 15, 2021 (updated from original post on 6/5/2012)
RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling
2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed
formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit
design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at
the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps
while tying up your telephone line, and a lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail"
when a new message arrived...
Copyright 1996 - 2026
All trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other rights of ownership to images
and text used on the RF Cafe website are hereby acknowledged.