Not Bad for Government Work!

Not Bad for Government Work!
	Want a job with great pay, stellar benefits, job security and early retirement? You can scour the job listings in the private sector, but we’ll bet you won’t find anything that compares to working for Uncle Sam. You are extremely generous to your federal employees, whether you know it or not. Here’s how federal employment compares to the private sector:
	Pay
	There is a common misperception about low-paying government jobs, but this is not based in reality. Federal government salaries averaged $81,258 in 2009, 60% higher than private sector jobs ($50,462). When the cost of benefits is added, federal employees make more than double that of private sector employees at $123,049 compared to $61,051. Federal employees can also get raises even during a pay freeze (step increases).
	Healthcare
	Federal employees have access to a choice of healthcare plans. The Office of Personnel Management contracts with multiple insurers in each market, and allows employees to compare the plans and select the one that is best for them. The government covers approximately 75% of the cost of this healthcare insurance. Federal employees also receive dental, vision, life, and long-term care insurance, and have access to flexible spending accounts, allowing them to pay for out-of pocket healthcare expenses with pre-tax dollars.
	Paid time off
	Federal employees get 10 paid holidays, 13 days of sick leave each year, and between 13 and 26 vacation days, depending on the years of employment. Thanks to a new perk tacked on to the 2009 defense appropriations bill, they can now save up their sick time and cash it in to increase their pension. If these 36-49 paid days off are not enough, they have the flexibility to work enough extra hours to take a day off every pay period, or 26 days per year.
	Retirement
	Federal employees have not one, BUT THREE retirement plans, at minimal expense to them. First, federal employees participate in Social Security. Second, there is an additional pension plan provided through the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). And third, federal employees have a supplemental defined-contribution plan, called the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). While federal workers do have to pay their share of Social Security taxes, we subtract that amount from their required pension contributions to FERS, leaving their contribution to FERS at less than 1% of salary. For the TSP, the federal government contributes 1% of pay regardless of whether an employee pays into the system, and matches employee contributions up to a total of 5% of pay. Federal employees can retire at age 57 if they have 10 years of service. And with 20 years of service, in addition to getting their benefits through FERS, the government will give them the equivalent of what they would get from Social Security if they were 65. The government will also continue to provide healthcare benefits until Medicare eligibility is reached. In the private sector, retirement has become a thing of the past, with people being forced to stay in the workforce beyond the Social Security retirement age of 65.
	Student Loans
	Federal agencies have the option of offering to pay up to $10,000 per year (maximum of $60,000 total) of an employee’s student loans. This is an agency-by-agency decision, and in 2009, 36 federal agencies spent $61.8 million in student loan repayment benefits. For those not lucky enough to work for an agency that pays their student loans, there is another option. Under the Loan Forgiveness for Public Service Employees program, federal employees must make payments on their student loans for 10 years, after which the federal government will forgive the balance. In addition, they can enter the Income Based Repayment (IBR) Plan, which allows them to lower their payments in the early years of their career.
	Job security
	With most private sector workers still shell-shocked from the recession, the term job security seems like a thing of the past (much like pensions, for that matter). However, the federal government offers more job security than you would find almost anywhere else. Even plans to reduce the size of the federal workforce, such as the one in Paul Ryan’s budget, do so by attrition rather than layoffs. What this means is that, to lower the headcount, the federal government waits until someone leaves and then just doesn’t replace them. If agency administrators need to accelerate the process, they generally offer a combination of early retirement and a generous payout. In the private sector, you can usually count on a week or two of severance for each year you worked for a company and a promise of a good reference.
All of the information contained in this e-mail is true, and was pulled directly from the federal government’s own websites. As taxpayers, we directly fund the public sector and its employees. While most people in the private sector struggle to fund their own retirements, they unknowingly provide public sector workers with pay and benefits in excess of their own. The Free Enterprise Nation has made it a mission to educate the private sector on how the government uses your tax dollars.

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