How Does Your Income Stack Up To U.S. Government Salaries?
May 2010
How Does Your Income Stack Up?
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Reader Comments (15)

Posted by: Drew at 05/06/2010 08:29:28 PM

I dont know what this is supposed to show? that a lot of government workers get paid little? Except thats only a salary...they get PLENTY of money from PLENTY of other sources..

Posted by: B at 05/06/2010 08:41:14 PM

What a one-sided argument. No athletes? actors? Big-company CEOs?

Posted by: Jo Dean at 05/06/2010 09:12:13 PM

Wow, incredible. Those guys are making way too much money

Posted by: @Drew at 05/06/2010 10:16:58 PM

Bull. I work for a Congressional rep and there is NO money for the staff. I have a Masters degree and make less than 30k per year. There are zero "other sources" that give us money.

Posted by: Nop at 05/06/2010 10:23:12 PM

Public school teachers are government workers. They are paid through taxation. Taxation is theft.

Posted by: Cal at 05/06/2010 10:54:08 PM

I would through in Sports Athletes in there.. I dunno an 18-20 year old can walk out with basic college education and make 10 times more than a doctor of 10 years...Our system has things backwards when we pay athletes 10 times more than those who went to school for 10 years to save our lives.

Posted by: Drew WTF at 05/06/2010 10:54:25 PM

Drew, WTF are you talking about? Where do you think a federal cook or janitor would be getting this "PLENTY of money" from? If you are referring to politicians, then yes. They are all crooked and corrupt. Your typical govt employee has no alternative income.

Posted by: Andy at 05/06/2010 10:57:41 PM

This just shows what happens in a global economy where US workers compete against labor in 3rd world countries. Business can exert downward pressure on wages in this economy. Since the government is not as quick to drop wages, a disparity has emerged. When I started working for gov, our wages were far below private sector for similar jobs.

Posted by: culverto at 05/07/2010 12:01:31 AM

This is confusing and really poorly done...

Posted by: asdf at 05/07/2010 12:08:33 AM

"those guys are making way too much mone"y...aaaahahahahahahahaahahahahahahaha...you'd better fix that so the world is a better place for all of us. yeah. go do that. you're awesome/thanks

Posted by: Evan Hahn at 05/07/2010 01:38:22 AM

The income divides in our country are truly staggering (so are the amount we pay on taxes). Lots of possible positions/salaries could be included in this piece, maybe there'll be a sequel. And America LOVES sequels!

Posted by: Joe at 05/07/2010 08:30:33 AM

Don't forget that government workers get great benefits including a pension when they retire!

Posted by: Kate at 05/07/2010 12:23:56 PM

This graph is absolutely pointless. If your purpose was to emphasize that government employees have inflated salaries compared to privately employed people- you're wrong, and you failed to demonstrate that point. Many people take government jobs with lower salaries than those offered by private companies. For instance, an engineer would likely make less working for the government than they would for Boeing or Caterpillar. Also, a lawyer would have the opportunity to make 4x as much working for a law firm than they would being a legislative aid or legal adviser for a government bureaucracy. However, government workers do tend to enjoy more job security and better benefits than their privately employed counterparts. It's a trade off...

Posted by: HansJurgen at 05/09/2010 01:07:41 PM

The biggest problem I see about government workers is that they they don't work in a competitive world. They can sit on their butts, do nothing and still get paid. Whereas in the private sector, sitting on your butt gets your fired since you're held accountable to a bottom line of PROFIT of LOSS. The US post office has been in debt for years yet they are still in business with little or no cost reductions or layoffs. Government workers, on the most part, aren't held to performance standards/profitability as private workers are and have to be to stay in business.

Posted by: Johan at 05/24/2010 07:37:07 PM

The real place to look are at the state and city levels where pensions often run 90% of salary or more.