Federal Workers Not Underpaid

The head of the Office of Personnel Management claims that federal workers are underpaid compared to private sector workers by 20 percent, on average. Federal unions and other cheerleaders for the bureaucracy have been making similar claims for years.


I’ve pointed out the dramatic acceleration of federal compensation over the last decade and the excessive generosity of federal worker benefits.


Federal workers are not underpaid.


Now a Human Resources expert writing in The Washington Post backs up my claims. Lily Garcia writes:

The primary advantages of working for the federal government are generous benefits, solid pay, and relative job security, a combination that is challenging to find in the private sector, even in the best of times … In addition to these benefits, federal employees, contrary to popular belief, are paid relatively well.

One policy implication is that federal worker compensation would be a good place to look for budget savings to reduce the federal deficit. We could start with a two‐​year freeze on federal salaries to save about $20 billion. During a recession, private wages are not increasing, so why should federal wages?