Santa Obama: Some Fed Workers Get Paid Time Off

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Remember wanting to work Holidays getting paid time and a half. If they offer that day off "paid" the business saves money. Those on Salary get no added benefits other than family time. Sorry, but in the Military there is not enough overtime paid out to ever cover what they do. If you get a chance to get it, take it. Many other jobs will never see the sacrifices others make in their jobs. So Lets give thanks for having a job period at this time and hope that they don't tax them to death to cover up for the jobs lost due to the recession and pay for all their unemployed government employee's when they get laid off this year. It's coming and fast!

Chris of PA 7:08PM November 27, 2011

FED AND OTHER PUBLIC EMPLOYEES STILL DON'T GET IT...
Otherwise they would stop telling us all how overworked, underpaid, underappreciated, yada, yada, yada, they are.
Do more for and with less. Just like the rest of us.
Public or private, some people just like to burrow in and stay a while. That's a historical legacy in the private sector anymore.
15-20 years ago... Yeah right. I have BA friends from college who shot right into state, teaching, and postal jobs after graduation. Now you could wake any one of them in the middle of the night and still half asleep they could tell you the exact year, month, day, and hour when they retire - and how much their retirement package will be.

dom youngross of OH 6:32PM November 27, 2011

15-20 years ago, many people would not consider federal or state jobs as they were low-paying, difficult and had little chance of advancement. Now, public service workers are being pilloried because their jobs have benefits and seem to be well-paying. Are these public workers now supposed to feel guilty because they chose that career? And BTW, that "average salary" is figured by adding in the highly paid executive and administrative employees' salaries. Believe me, that $74K annual quoted is well above the average worker's salary.

anne mcdonald of IL 10:47AM November 26, 2011

My husband has 4 degree's (undergrad, 2 grad and 1 Ph.D), he has 26 yrs experience in chemical work. He was been "woo'd" by private agencies over the years and has elected to stay with his current employer, Dept of Defense. His Fed DOD salary PLUS benefits don't even come close to what he could have made.
He is also deployable and is on call 24/7.
Why does he stay?
Because , like the 127 people he works with in his division, he feels that he is protecting the United States. He feels a deep sense of duty and responsibility to the mission that they have been tasked with.
What cutting Fed salaries will accomplish is to create a brain-drain in crucial area's. We are in our late 40's ... you are going to lose the experienced people and they will not be replaced.
We have 3 kids going through school...college. Housing sucks up an incredible part of our income. We are proud to work and serve, but don't kick the Fed Employees when they are already down. No merit raises for someone on call 24/7 and deployable? ? No COL raises?
Would YOU work for an employer like that?

Jane of MD 8:54AM November 26, 2011

Mike from AZ, I'm a federal employee, and I can tell you that we did not get merit raises or COL raises last year, nor will we for this year.
If the "average" salary sounds high, keep in mind that the DC region is one of the most expensive in the country. A big portion of most people's pay goes to housing.
Also, the Senior Executive Service (who all make well above 100K and some over 200K) still get raises and even bonuses; if you want to cut someone's pay, cut theirs.
Those high SES salaries drive up the average.
The typical federal employee works long hours and, after paying for housing, ends up with around the same amount as folks in the rest of the country. All this while working on very important policies and programs that require a lot of specialization and expertise and affect millions of people.

Fed Guy of DC 1:51PM November 25, 2011

I hate the word average. Why do we still have some federal and state employees that are so poor that they can qualify for welfare? Stop this separation of the classes mess please. Think about the average wage of a person working at McDonalds verses the earnings of a manager or CEO for the same firm. How would I rate this article? It's about average. Give those people a day off!!

GoFigure of TX 2:20AM November 24, 2011

I believe the article is wrong in one respect: Federal workers did not get merit raises but they did receive cost of living adjustments!

Mike of AZ 7:05PM November 23, 2011

At first I found the title of the article offensive, but then I realized Obama really is just like Santa, who coerces money from mature adults to provide uncredited gifts to dependent children, except for those who disagree with him. Isn't the nanny state just magical?

Daniel of OH 6:23PM November 23, 2011