By Covering Business March 14, 2012
In 2011, the federal government employed 2.3 million civilians, about 1.7% of the U.S. workforce. The salaries and benefits of those employees are a common target of critics of government bloat.
Amid new calls for fiscal prudence, the Senate Budget Committee commissioned a study from the Congressional Budget Office on how the compensation of federal workers measures up against that of the private sector from 2005 to 2010. The study was released in January.
Among the findings:
• Whether a government employee makes more than his counterpart in the private sector depends largely on their highest level of education.
• Government employees with only a high school degree earned a wage 21% higher than private-sector employees with the same level of education. They also received benefits worth about 72% more than those given to employees in the private sector.
• Government employees whose highest level of education is a bachelor’s degree earned about the same wage as private-sector employees with the same degree. However, the value of their benefits was about 46% higher.
• Government employees with professional or doctoral degrees earned about 23% less than their counterparts in the private sector. Their benefits were about the on par with one another.
Read the full report (PDF).
