May 5, 1976

Public Employees Top Average Tax Payer

Good news, if you are an average taxpayer!

Starting this week you are working to pay your own bills.  Since January 1 you have been working to meet public expenses - schools, government and military.

Corporations and individuals making more than fifty thousand dollars per year will have to work until July to pay their taxes, but who cares about them?

No one begrudges a "good living" for our public servants.  However, few taxpayers realize that public employees have quietly carved out a standard of living for themselves that is superior to ours.

According to Bureau of Labor statistics, for example, the average government employee in Washington D.  C. earns about $17,000 per year - the same as trash haulers in San Francisco.  The average employee of private business earns about $10,000.

This situation irks the National Taxpayer's Union considerably.  It points out that the actual pay scale for public employees is only the tip of the iceberg.

In addition to high pay, the average employee of the Federal government gets 50 percent more paid time off than the person working for private business.  Government employees work shorter hours and have greater job security than persons in private enterprise.  Federal employees can retire with full pension at age 55 - a decade sooner than employees in private enterprise.

If you are wealthy, these things probably don't bother you.  They should concern you, however, if you earn less than $17,000 per year, work 40 hours per week and still have your nose to the grind stone after age 55.

A study by the General Accounting Office, itself a vast government bureau, confirms that government employees get paid more for doing less.  The GAO points out that claims processors working for the government handle 2,500 cases per year.

Those working for private companies process more than twice as many.  For this work, the government processors earn $21,600 while those working for private industry average only $15,000.

The National Taxpayers Union, in recent statements, says few private employers can afford to match the high pay government offers.  Those who attempt it usually go broke.

The majority who remain in business often do so at low profit rates - returning less to investors than is yielded by government bonds.  The result is a lack of capital in productive enterprise and this causes high unemployment.

"The situation clearly should be corrected," says the NTU, "for the benefit of everyone in society, including government employees.  But instead of getting better it's getting worse."

Government employees got a five percent raise last October.  They will get another one this year because Congress has made raises automatic.

By the time most government employees reach retirement they are earning much more than members of the public who pay their salaries.

After retirement, the gap between government employees and the rest of the public becomes startlingly large.  The Federal pension system is set up so that retired bureaucrats actually profit from inflation.

When the cost of living rises 3 percent - now get this - their pensions are adjusted by 4 percent.

This is due to a provision sneaked into the Federal Pension Law for the special benefit of Congress and other public employees.  It is a piece of legal thievery known as the "1 percent add on".

After a few years of retirement, many former government employees receive more than when they were working.  In fact, many will get more in retirement benefits than the average person earns in his entire working life.

Former Congressman Hastings Keith, who retired a little over two years ago, calculates that his own pension has gone up 9 percent MORE than the cost of living that triggers the increases automatically.  If increases continue at the present rate, Mr. Keith will be getting more than $17,000 PER MONTH by the end of his life expectancy!

Former chief actuary for the Social Security Administration, Robert Myers, calculates that the "one percent add on" alone could cost taxpayers as much as $400 billion.  Since there are only about 60 million actual taxpayers - your share would amount to $6,500!

The NTU asserts, "When the benefits of working for government become too great, everyone in society suffers.  Even government workers.  Inflationary, deficit spending raises the cost of living for everybody.  The higher taxes and lower profits in private life mean less production of goods and services, which government employees want to consume.

"The result is a vicious downward spiral, which threatens our entire economy.  While government pay and pensions skyrocket, the taxpayers who pay the bills are getting poorer.  Real earnings of working Americans went down for the second straight year.

"Small wonder."

Author: Lindsey Williams