Private Sector Outpays Feds By 23 Percent

By ARI PAUL

What is the difference between a private-sector employee and a Federal worker doing the same job? On average, the former has a 23-percent higher salary, according to a Federal Salary Council report released Oct. 3.

COLLEEN M. KELLEY: Makes case for raise.

The council also recommended that Federal employees receive a 2.5-percent raise.

Shows Need for Hike

National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen M. Kelley, who represents 150,000 Federal workers and serves on the council, said the findings indicated that Federal employees need to be paid more.

"Virtually every study of the factors that motivate people in the workplace shows that pay is a vital component," Ms. Kelley said in a statement. "Short-changing people on pay is a sure way to erode the effectiveness of any enterprise, including the Federal Government whose highly-skilled and experienced professionals are in great demand by the private sector."

Jackie Simon, the policy director for the American Federation of Government Employees, saw the gap as a reflection of improved information-gathering by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"These data have been changing a lot recently because the Federal Salary Council has been switching over to a new survey," she said. "Over the last few years, the BLS has added more Federal job matches, so the data is getting more and more accurate."

She specifically noted the addition of supervisory positions, saying that many high-level employees in the public sector make far less than their counterparts in the private sector, but that they often stay in government because of a devotion to civil service. "They are not driven solely by money," she said. "On the other hand, they are underpaid."