The new state “Edu-Jobs” bailout bill that the House passed today will temporarily “save” some government jobs, but will add $9.6 billion in permanent tax hikes. Republican members of the House Ways & Means Committee (the committee over taxes) estimate that this extension of the stimulus would actually eliminate 141,000 private sector jobs. Instead of actually stimulating growth in employment, this bill takes water out of one side of the bucket and pours it back in the other side, spilling a little – and then call it success! What we need is a comprehensive evaluation of what will really make our economy grow and create productive jobs.
As report after report rolls in, it’s clear that adding more government jobs isn’t the answer. The trend we’ve seen is that the average compensation and benefits of federal employees have increased for nine straight years. In the private sector however, pay and benefits have been stagnant. Today, federal government worker compensation is actually more than double that of their private sector counterparts, according to USA Today. The article goes on to note that “the average federal salary has grown 33% faster than inflation since 2000,” and that federal compensation has grown 36.9% since 2000 (adjusted for inflation) compared with 8.8% for private workers. Unless your employer is Uncle Sam, all of these job initiatives Congress touts are clearly not working for you.