On Questions and Answers - Part 1

Q: How many federal employees earning more than $100,000 per year in salary does it take to destroy American's productive economy?

A: A lot less than those of us who aren't employed by the federal government are currently financing.

Which is why I am happy to see this article in USA Today (of all periodicals), noting that:

• Almost 19% of the employees of the federal government now pull down salaries in excess of $100,000 per year. (This is compared to ~14% at the beginning of the recession/economic crisis. This also does not include bonuses or overtime pay.)
• The number of employees of the U.S. Defense Department making salaries in excess of $150,000 increased from 1,868 in December 2007 to 10,100 in June 2009. That is a more than five-fold increase in the number of such highly-compensated individuals.
• In the U.S. Department of Transportation, at the beginning of the recession, there was only one employee earning more than $170,000 /year in salary. Now (as of June 2009), there are 1,690 such employees. I believe that is an increase of 1,690 fold, for you arithmetic whizzes.

NOTE 1: The average salary for federal employees is $71,206. The average salary for other folks is $40,331. (The article says that is the "private sector" average, but I wonder if they excluded state government employees?)

NOTE 2: These numbers (stunning enough) to not include employees at the White House, in Congress, working for the US Postal Service, intelligence [sic] agencies, or uniformed military personnel. (Not knowing any better, I'd think the White House, Congress and the intelligence agencies likely would push that average federal salary higher, and that the USPS and uniformed military folks would likely pus that average lower.)