Nothing like a discussion of federal salaries to fill up my inbox with angry comments from federal workplaces across the land. In a post last week, I simply pointed out that new data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) showed that federal worker wages and benefits have been rising quickly, and by 2005 averaged twice the average in the private sector.  Then came the email.

Fedsmith, a very useful website that focuses on federal workforce issues, discussed the data this morning, and federal workers also responded with dozens of comments.

GovExec.com also ran a story today.

By the way, I can say nice things about federal workers–BEA economists do quality work, churn out loads of great data, and are very helpful when you send them a query.