Hey, Sharky!

[Cal&Ken]

I know the Obama's Czars are overpaid.

I would agree that this is the case. I also agree in the article where clerical and technical people make more than the counterparts-I do believe this is very true. But, I don't think that the answer is an arbitrary accross the board freeze or reduction. The answer is going through each agency and find the contribution of that agency. People may not know that there have been entire agencies set up under obama and probably a lot of presidents that duplicate other agencies. Somehow I don't think that is progress. I also know of agencies that have "fat" that could be cut.

[Dr Twister]

I would agree that this is the case. I also agree in the article where clerical and technical people make more than the counterparts-I do believe this is very true. But, I don't think that the answer is an arbitrary across the board freeze or reduction. The answer is going through each agency and find the contribution of that agency. People may not know that there have been entire agencies set up under Obama and probably a lot of presidents that duplicate other agencies. Somehow I don't think that is progress. I also know of agencies that have "fat" that could be cut.

Technical people in our agency make way more than they would in the private sector (if I had to guess probably 10k to 20K depending on the field). Part of this being, we recruit the top caliber and need to be highly competitive to keep them. Examples being our entry level engineers (bachelor degree level) can be guaranteed a salary in the mid 70k, the reasoning being we recruit from all over the country and in certain areas 70k is the average.

[Cal&Ken]

Technical people in our agency make way more than they would in the private sector (if I had to guess probably 10k to 20K depending on the field). Part of this being, we recruit the top caliber and need to be highly competitive to keep them. Examples being our entry level engineers (bachelor degree level) can be guaranteed a salary in the mid 70k, the reasoning being we recruit from all over the country and in certain areas 70k is the average.

I misspoke there- I meant to put technician jobs- those that don't have degrees. If I were cutting, after the entire agencies that were created, I would be cutting some of the clerical salaries and technicians. I am sure there are lots of cases this is not the case, but overall I think there are dollars there that could be cut. That said, the big money is not in salaries for govt. workers, and certainly not the lower paid ones.

[JuBru]

Contractors, don't forget contractors. There are a ridiculous amount of contractors (not just PMCs) that end up quadruplicating aspects of many jobs.

[TYLERTECHSAS]

I know the Obama's Czars are overpaid.

Hum...will they still get paid in a government shut down?

[hookdown]

Contractors, don't forget contractors. There are a ridiculous amount of contractors (not just PMCs) that end up quadruplicating aspects of many jobs.

Contractors cost more per hour than feds, so in the short term the are much more expensive.

[Dr Twister]

I misspoke there- I meant to put technician jobs- those that don't have degrees. If I were cutting, after the entire agencies that were created, I would be cutting some of the clerical salaries and technicians. I am sure there are lots of cases this is not the case, but overall I think there are dollars there that could be cut. That said, the big money is not in salaries for govt. workers, and certainly not the lower paid ones.

Technicians have too much time invested on them in training so they really are the last to get cut, worst that could happen is a freeze in the hiring of these positions. The clerical positions are the easiest to cut I've noticed.

[JuBru]

Contractors cost more per hour than feds, so in the short term the are much more expensive.

That's my point. I'm willing to bet there would be a huge amount of savings here. Easily in the billions.

[hookdown]

That's my point. I'm willing to bet there would be a huge amount of savings here. Easily in the billions.

There you go, trying to inflate the federal government again.... :icon_wink:


There would be a savings, but I am not sure how that affects the long term picture after the budget numbers are crunched. I personally would like to see us rely less on contractors and bring a lot of the work in-house.

[Cal&Ken]

Technicians have too much time invested on them in training so they really are the last to get cut, worst that could happen is a freeze in the hiring of these positions. The clerical positions are the easiest to cut I've noticed.

I'm talking about cutting their salaries, not the positions for the most part. And, I think that is a case by case basis- in some agencies, there is very little training and it is a clerical type function- regardless of the title.

[Dr Twister]

I'm talking about cutting their salaries, not the positions for the most part. And, I think that is a case by case basis- in some agencies, there is very little training and it is a clerical type function- regardless of the title.

Cutting someone's salary in the federal system is harder than terminating someone. In the few cases where you can get away with it you're lucky if you don't lose that employee because of it anyways.

[JuBru]

There you go, trying to inflate the federal government again.... :icon_wink:


There would be a savings, but I am not sure how that affects the long term picture after the budget numbers are crunched. I personally would like to see us rely less on contractors and bring a lot of the work in-house.

I don't think I'm inflating anything. Heck, most of the "interviews" with "non-essential" personnel have been with contractors, not actual federal government employees. Icann look at just JBLM here and see a huge number of contractors where Soldiers should be doing the job. Also very few federal employees. I just see a lot of redundancy, even more than than what you would would expect from the government.

[Cal&Ken]

Cutting someone's salary in the federal system is harder than terminating someone. In the few cases where you can get away with it you're lucky if you don't lose that employee because of it anyways.

It would be a battle, you can always grandfather current employees in. People don't fight as hard then. But, if true that the private sector is paying less then they could easily be replaced.