August 11, 2010 8:25AM # Federal Government Is a Lucrative ‘Industry’ By [Tad DeHaven](https://www.cato.org/people/tad-dehaven) --- SHARE The [Bureau of Economic Analysis](http://www.bea.gov/national/nipaweb/SelectTable.asp?Selected=N#S6) latest release of industry compensation levels shows that the average federal worker ranks up at the top along with employees in the finance and energy industries. That’s not exactly popular company these days. The BEA presents compensation data for 72 industries that span the U.S. economy. Figure 1 shows the 20 industries with the highest levels of average compensation, which includes wages and benefits. It also shows the average for all U.S. private industries and the average for the industry with the lowest compensation. (The names of the industries have been simplified in some cases). Federal civilian workers have the sixth highest average compensation of the 72 industries: ![Media Name: 201008_blog_dehaven111_new.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/201008_blog_dehaven111_new.jpg?itok=suC5WZm8) [As yesterday’s post showed](../2010/08/10/federal-employees-continue-to-prosper/), federal employee compensation has exploded over the course of the decade. Figure 2 shows that this federal employee compensation growth has been the fifth highest of the 72 industries measured by the BEA: ![Media Name: 201008_blog_dehaven112_new.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/201008_blog_dehaven112_new.jpg?itok=aTsR3yVt) ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).