GOP: Fed Workers Are Overpaid
The Hill reports:
Cost-cutting House Republicans on Wednesday made it clear that they are eyeing the salaries of federal workers.
And they don’t like what they see.
During a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee hearing, panel Chairman Dennis Ross (R-Fla.) noted that “federal employees on average earned $101,628 in total compensation in 2010, nearly four times more than the average private-sector worker.”
He argued President Obama’s two-year pay freeze for federal workers, enacted in December, “wasn’t really a freeze” because it did not include all increases. He also decried the fact that Obama’s 2012 budget calls for hiring 15,000 more federal workers.
Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry shot back that studies showing federal workers earn more than private-sector workers are misleading, and said federal workers should not be denigrated.
The contentious hearing comes as Republican governors in various states, most notably Wisconsin, are seeking to make major cuts in government salaries and benefits.
Ross said there is less pressure on federal workers than state workers in places like Wisconsin because the federal government isn’t forced by law to balance its budget, like states are.
Recent polls show Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) slipping in the polls amid the budget stalemate. But House Republicans say the issue of federal workers' salaries is a winning issue for them because of the nation’s anti-Washington mood and rejection of legislation that expands the reach of government.
Last summer, then-Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) railed against the salaries of federal workers, calling for major reforms.
After the 2010 election, Obama announced the two-year freeze for federal workers, infuriating union officials and leading GOP officials to crow that the president endorsed their idea.
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