When I was growing up, my dad had his own business, but I can still remember his telling me to get a government job. He used to tell me that the pay wasn't that good, but you got benefits and a retirement.
That was then, and this is now. From USATODAY.com:
The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal salary data. Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession's first 18 months—and that's before overtime pay and bonuses are counted. Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time—in pay and hiring—during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector.
The highest-paid federal employees are doing best of all on salary increases. Defense Department civilian employees earning $150,000 or more increased from 1,868 in December 2007 to 10,100 in June 2009, the most recent figure available.
When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later, 1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000. The trend to six-figure salaries is occurring throughout the federal government, in agencies big and small, high-tech and low-tech. The primary cause: substantial pay raises and new salary rules.
"There's no way to justify this to the American people. It's ridiculous," says Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, a first-term lawmaker who is on the House's federal workforce subcommittee.
The average federal worker now makes more than $71,000. The average private sector workers is making thirty thousand dollars less, and is at a little over $40,000. So you can see why I want that government job. The truth is that in this recession, government jobs are the only expanding sector in the job market.
So, where do I sign up?
Post Script
It is just a couple of weeks before Christmas, and people are in a rush to get things done. The Congress is in a rush, too. They want to get the Health Care Bill passed. I don't know what is in that bill, and truth be told, neither do the people in Congress. President Obama promised that this whole process would be transparent, and the American people would know ahead of time what they were trying to pass.
President Obama lied.