Want a 22 percent raise with zero risk of being let go?
Get a federal job.
A just-released report from Heritage Foundation scholar James Sherk reveals that times have never been better for civilian employees of Uncle Sam.
To wit: Federal employees enjoy salaries 22 percent higher than folks in the private sector with comparable qualifications and job descriptions — 30 to 40 percent higher when you factor in extra-generous fringe benefits.
Plus, civil-service protections make it almost impossible to be fired.
Nice work if you can get it, right?
Actually, the federal government seems to be the only employer that’s hiring.
According to Heritage, federal civilian employment is up 12.2 percent, to 2.21 million, since December 2007 — even as the private sector’s shed 7.9 million jobs.
Sherk estimates that Americans would save $47 billion a year simply by bringing most federal-employee compensation in line with market rates.
In other words, that’s $47 billion — at least — that taxpayers never should have been paying in the first place.
Is it any wonder that they’re getting more and more fed up with the burden — and starting to turn their anger on public employees?
Not in the slightest.