House Passes Federal Wage Freeze

Darrell Issa's tweet alerted me to the passage of a federal wage freeze today, HR 3835. As a federal employee, I am not exactly happy to have my pay frozen as real world inflation continues. But given, the tough economic times that Americans are still facing, I understand that even the federal work force isn't immune to economic forces. Republicans cleverly tied the federal work force pay freeze to a freeze on the pay of members of Congress. From Politico:

“So, it will be perceived as if you are voting against the bill, you are voting to raise your own salary,” House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters earlier this week. “A very good 30-second ad. Isn’t that clever?”

Why, yes it is. I love it when Democrats whine when they get outmaneuvered, but crow when they do it themselves. However, there are some decent reasons to continue the freeze, even though it doesn't save that much money. Issa's office included this information in a press release.

On Monday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office issued a study, which found that total compensation for federal employees was 16% greater than for comparable private sector employees.

The CBO study also found that:

• Benefits were 48% more costly for federal employees than private sector employees.

• Highly-skilled employees (with a professional degree or PhD) were the only employees compensated less than their private sector counterparts.

• Taking benefits out of the equation, federal employees made 2% more than private sector workers at large companies and 9% more than private sector workers overall.

Unfortunately, the PhD issue is a real problem for our military research labs looking to attract top talent. We need some smart folks to perform basic research and to have the skills to ensure that defense contractors are subject to honest test and evaluation criteria.