The Labor Department Numbers released numbers late last week indicating salaries for federal workers lagged behind their private sector counterparts in 2010, with the pay gap widening, on average, from 22 percent to 24 percent.
The current Bureau of Labor Statistics data were presented on Friday at a meeting of the Federal Salary Council, which is made up of federal pay policy experts and union leaders. The 24 percent salary gap will help inform the council's recommendations to President Obama for federal pay raises in 2012. Congress has yet to approve a federal pay raise for 2011.
It's unclear what caused the increase in the pay gap this year, but officials argue that recent changes in survey methodology and personnel shifts due to the Defense Department's Base Realignment and Closure initiative could have played a role, Government Executive reports. The BLS data also show federal workers at lower GS grades are paid more than their private sector counterparts while employees at higher grades are paid less.
Federal unions argue the latest BLS numbers rebuff recent claims that federal employees are grossly overpaid when compared to their private sector counterparts. "There is a great deal of misinformation being advanced, largely for partisan political purposes, that federal employees are overpaid," said Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union. "In fact, the opposite is true."
Brittany Ballenstedt
Brittany Ballenstedt writes Nextgov's Wired Workplace blog, which delves into the issues facing employees who work in the federal information technology sector. Before joining Nextgov, Brittany covered federal pay and benefits issues as a staff correspondent for Government Executive and served as an associate editor for National Journal's Technology Daily. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Mansfield University and originally hails from Pennsylvania. She currently lives near Travis Air Force Base, Calif., where her husband is stationed.
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