101–110 of 132 posts
It would be really interesting to compare this to private sector jobs (where applicable) taking into consideration pension, benefits, etc.
wow a librarian at a GS14 level: [name removed] DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE LIBRARIAN Maryland Prince George's County BELTSVILLE GS 14 119238 I know the GS schedule is based on how long you work as opposed to how well you work, but i didn't think that non-STEM or non-Management roles made above GS11 or 12.
At a research library – and if, as it appears, this is http://www.nal.usda.gov/ it's one of a small number of major national libraries – it's common for librarians to provide expert advice. It's not “Get me [ISBN]” so much as “I'm looking for information on a topic. Can you find good sources?”
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Very cool, thanks! Already having some fun: Location with highest average salary among stations with >25 federal employees: Islip, NY - 496 employees $43,162 min $140,781 avg $179,700 max
That looks like Brookhaven National Lab.
Meanwhile, Islip is the home of McCarthur Airport, a medium sized airport that serves the east end of Long Island.
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Most of the people who are making 100-200k would make at the very least double that if they were in the private sector. A GS-15 is equivalent to a Brigadier General(Who would be in charge of thousands of people). Now, keep in mind that some technology positions have inflated GS ranks because it was the only way they could get the salaries high enough to attract talent. Security analysts and programmers don't come che…
The government has significantly _lower_ turnover than the private sector, which isn't what microeconomics says we would see if the workers could make that much more by leaving. It's more consistent with the suggestion that the workers would make considerably less if they left. So: 1. Microeconomics is seriously, perhaps completely, wrong; or, 2. Federal employees are much more motivated by non-financial rewards, suc…
There are also other, less appreciated aspects: e.g. federal employees work is in the public domain by default which means a lot of people can work on open-source software without fighting corporate culture:
http://government.github.com/community/
The number of jobs where that's true is a small subset of the number of jobs which pay more in the private sector.
The other big factor you're missing is the stability: if you have a family, disabilities or health problems, etc. something like the startup scene is a lot less appealing compared to a job where there are legal mandates against death-march project management. Given the skew towards mid-to-senior level positions, I'm also sure that a lot of people saw the appeal of an employer which has strict rules against age discrimination, too.
This is not to say that they couldn't make more money but that they're making tradeoffs for the likely future value based on their personal risk exposure. Arguably #1 is true but really it's irrelevant because anything as complicated as your career seems outside of the scope of microeconomics.
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Given that the government already knows, and either your employer or your accountant knows, and your bank has a pretty good idea, why do you think your income is to any meaningful extent still private?
Personally, I wouldn't want it shared with the world. The people/organizations you have listed are somewhat trusted entities. Income data can be used for a slew of criminal activity. I wonder if you can correlate the release of the data with burglaries or other crimes spiking in the relatively wealthier households, compared to their neighbors.
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They'll be paid back when the government is no longer shut down. So if you have savings, it's essentially a forced paid vacation.
With a backlog of work to do once you return. Its not like an office or factory suspending operations because there is no work. Many of these people have deadlines that they won't be able to meet without a great deal of effort and likely overtime (if granted). So not only does this shutdown give them a "paid vacation" it's going to pay extra so that the work can still get done close to on time.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/10/09/backlog-of-va-disab...
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Given that the government already knows, and either your employer or your accountant knows, and your bank has a pretty good idea, why do you think your income is to any meaningful extent still private?
You ever listen to a friend, who has recently hit a rough patch, talking about their difficulty paying their bills and think "gee, this would be a rather inappropriate time to mention how much money I make." ? That is where the desire for wage privacy comes from for me. Talking about how much you make, outside the workplace , has no benefits. It is just going to make the conversation awkward, or somebody is going to…
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You ever listen to a friend, who has recently hit a rough patch, talking about their difficulty paying their bills and think "gee, this would be a rather inappropriate time to mention how much money I make." ? That is where the desire for wage privacy comes from for me. Talking about how much you make, outside the workplace , has no benefits. It is just going to make the conversation awkward, or somebody is going to…
Employees and employer form a market like any other. Societal norms around "wage privacy" sabotages this market at the cost of employees.
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You ever listen to a friend, who has recently hit a rough patch, talking about their difficulty paying their bills and think "gee, this would be a rather inappropriate time to mention how much money I make." ? That is where the desire for wage privacy comes from for me. Talking about how much you make, outside the workplace , has no benefits. It is just going to make the conversation awkward, or somebody is going to…
Employees and employer form a market like any other. Societal norms around "wage privacy" sabotages this market at the cost of employees.
Discussing wages with your employers/colleagues has advantages, and without it collective bargaining is difficult to impossible. However coworkers account for a slight fraction of those that most people interact with.
There is no utility in me (someone who works in tech) telling my brother (who works in aerospace) how much I make, and vice versa.