You ARE welcome...

steveinaz

Our annual pay increase took a serious nose-dive this year (almost 50% less), no doubt due to the whinning of those who feel government workers shouldn't get a cost-of-living increase during these tough times--and how that somehow would set a bad example. pfffftttttt...

Nothing is stopping anyone from getting a government job, so stop whinning and enjoy the benefits we (normally) enjoy; and thanks obama for setting an example at OUR expense, phukstick.

Some perspective, typically at the GS-11 level an annual pay increase would be about 55-60 cents an hour; this year, about 29 cents; not to mention far less locality pay as well.

Having said all that, I'm thankful for having a secure job--but I made that happen, so can you.

hoosier21

not sure what your saying, but thank you

vc69

Mississippi state workers got no increase last year. None this year and no hope of one till 2012. Zero. Nadda. In my department, the senior position has gone unfilled and those duties have fallen on me.

Lucky you.

Face

I'm still receiving raises every year, but the two week pay lags every year pretty much null them out.

Erik Tracy

My company is laying people off.

Times are tough - I'm not going to start whining about pay raises.

In fact, some folks getting laid off have disabilities but are extremely productive and some of us were considering forfeiting our pay to keep others on the payroll.

I guess it depends on your perspective.

steveinaz

State government workers are under a totally different system, and are definitely not as protected as federal workers.

My message was for the few whiners out there, not the population in general. Is it not so completely typical that they hammer the middle-income government workers, but the senior GS' made out like fat rats.

tonyb

I understand your plight Steve, but as usual, the government is misguided. People are outraged over the amount of federal employee's making over 6 figures and the rate that it increased under obama. Not to mention the bonuses as well. Military personel, in my opinion anyway,are way under payed and seem to always bear the brunt of the budget ax. I am pretty sure the average american has no problem with giving a pay increase of less than a buck an hour to any military personel. As you know though,it's a numbers game, add some politics to it and the end result is your situation. Sorry to hear about it, but gubberment jobs has it's benefits and it's disadvantages also, as I'm sure your aware.

steveinaz

Understand my point here, it's the way it was done to make the government look like it took a "hit." Reminds me of the line in Patton: "There goes 'ol blood 'n guts (speaking about Patton)..."yeah, OUR blood, his guts."

dkg999

Don't worry, hopey-changey didn't work out so well with healthcare, so now they are moving on to hopey-economy-changey. Just remember they are smarter than the rest of us, they've said so many times.

AsSiMiLaTeD

This is probably going to come across as me sounding like an ****, but i assure you that's not my intention:

I didn't get a raise last year, neither did my wife nor ANYONE else that I know. I don't expect to get one this year either.

Our merit increase each year is tied to our company overall performance - so if our profit is good we get a raise otherwise we don't. This is true for alot of workers in America. It doesn't matter WHY or what caused our revenues to decline, and the fact that I had nothing to do with it and its more likely tied to decisions by someone way up in the company at a much higher paygrade doesn't make a difference.

Why should it be any different for government workers? Our government has screwed up quite a few things over the last year and our deficit is ridiculous. Is that your fault Steve? Nope, and I imagine that anything you do contributes little or nothing to this fact.

The bottom line is your 'company' (the government) didn't have a great year by any fiscal standard that i can think of and it sounds like the pay is being handled accordingly. I'm sure you busted your **** and did a great job just like I did, but at the end of the day we're both getting shafted because of decision making we each have no control over.

I'm not saying that your 'employer' doesn't provide valuable services, of course the government provides many valuable services, too many to list, and so does my company, but that's not really the point here.

I realize the government is a different animal than the private sector in many respects, but the basic principle of your pay being based on the bottom dollar of your company rather than what you specifically produce seems to be fairly common these days, and while I don't agree with that in principle I can't think of any compelling reason why the government should be spared this approach.

vc69

I am rather lucky. I still have a job and my entry pay is near the top of the "middle" for state workers. IT does better than most at my agency (public television). Most people where I work are surviving on much less than I make. I am blessed too in that I supplement my income with consulting. The consulting side is already seeing an uptick in revenue. Our state budget is FUBAR and being a lagging indicator, will not rebound for awhile, even as the economy begins recovery. I am just happy to have insurance and a steady income.

steveinaz

tonyb wrote: »

I understand your plight Steve, but as usual, the government is misguided. People are outraged over the amount of federal employee's making over 6 figures and the rate that it increased under obama. Not to mention the bonuses as well. Military personel, in my opinion anyway,are way under payed and seem to always bear the brunt of the budget ax. I am pretty sure the average american has no problem with giving a pay increase of less than a buck an hour to any military personel. As you know though,it's a numbers game, add some politics to it and the end result is your situation. Sorry to hear about it, but gubberment jobs has it's benefits and it's disadvantages also, as I'm sure your aware.

You can thank Donny Rumsfeld for the "NSPS" pay system (that, BTW only benefitted senior GS) that allowed them to have the key to the henhouse, basically determining their own pay increase. NSPS is going away next year (thank God). Talk about an exercise is stupidity:

When senior GS workers were converted to NSPS, of course they recieved a raise by default by virtue of the conversion process. Then, while being paid under NSPS, they got insanely high pay raises every year (most, not all). Now that they are pulling the plug on this stupid-**** program, guess what? Yeah, they'll get another pay raise when converted BACK to GS. Ain't that sweet?

What the hell was wrong with the GS pay scale/plan? Another case of fixing something that wasn't broke. This is what led to the sudden percentage increase of 6-figure government employees. Do you think NSPS civilians took a hit this year, oh hell no. See my point?

tonyb

Yeah, I know that Steve, and I agree with you. But I refer to federal workers, in the gazillion agencys in Washington that received big time pay increases. Rumsfield was a joke, nobody can deny that. Fixing something that wasn't broke is pretty much par for the course in politics. Like it or not, your job has an element of political culture to it that shows it's ugly head every so often, pisses you off,I know, but doesn't that come with the territory, so to speak ?

Ricardo

steveinaz wrote: »

My message was for the few whiners out there.

And what exactly are you doing Steve?

steveinaz

BTW Obama had no hand in the FY 09 pay increase, that was Bush. FY 10 is the first year that Obama had a political influence on government pay.

steveinaz

Ricardo wrote: »

And what exactly are you doing Steve?

Trying to educate you that the typical wage-earning governement employee (GS and Military) took the hit--not the senior level. Most civilians are not aware of that, I think they should know.

PhantomOG

My wife is a federal employee happens to see things completely different. She agrees with me that its INSANE that so many lazy f-ing people get guaranteed raises every year for simply for not **** up enough to get fired (which is damn near impossible with a federal job). People get raises/promotions simply based on seniority points and nothing at all to do with job performance. My wife does 10x the amount of the exact same work as those who make twice as much as she does. And those same damn people complain to her for doing too much work (ruining the curve etc etc). Government EQUALS waste.

Where I work, we have been laying off people every year for the past 5 years or so. I can't remember the last time I got a pay raise. Oh wait, I remember, last year the entire company took a 10% pay CUT.

I know government jobs are a necessary evil. I'm not disparaging armed forces (my father is retired army). But cry me a river why don't you. You know what? The economy SUCKS right now. For everyone. The government is blowing a bigger debt than ever, and you're whining about how SMALL your raise is????

vc69

steveinaz wrote: »

Trying to educate you that the typical wage-earning governement employee (GS and Military) took the hit--not the senior level. Most civilians are not aware of that, I think they should know.

I understand your point that senior level GS is over payed and under-performing. However, you actually got a raise. How is that taking a "hit"?

Many of us in fact got nothing at all.

concealer404

True... i got nothing except more work at the same pay.

But hey, i've still got a job.

PhantomOG

vc69 wrote: »

However, you actually got a raise. How is that taking a "hit"?

To the government employee, a raise every year is an entitlement. Anything less than what they think they deserve they consider a "hit".

Hawkeye

I was in the service when Carter held office. He withheld payraises for GS and military as we needed to set the example This example being made by a guy bringing home $137.00 every two weeks.

Gordon

steveinaz

You missed the boat too. I'm financially fine. My point is, why weren't the cuts made across the board? Why were NSPS employees pulling down huge raises, while the bulk of the workforce was penalized? You know why? So the current administration can put their face on the TV and talk about all the cuts "we" took---"we" my ****.

You getting it yet?

You'll get no argument from me that there is alot of dead weight in the federal government--you're preaching to the choir on that point. It is a lack of balls in the supervisory realm that allows these useless **** to remain employed. Many supervisors just want to come in everday, punch the time card, do their work, and go home. They don't want to deal with "problem children" so they look the other way.

I have to correct 1 point, the military did get a (well deserved) 3.4% raise this year. Ours, for this location, was 1.7%. We typically get a 3-3.5% annual increase. The last time federal GS employees had this low of a raise was 1974.

reeltrouble1

gotcha steve, we got absoulutely slammed in this so-called recession with much bigger costs for our benefits particularily medical and no raise worth mentioning, WTF, costs are down.......so why the big increase....taxpayer rates sure as hell did not get lowered just spun around a bit....the spin I hear about why we gotta pay more makes me want to puke, government workers have served this country for years and years, sure I got/get paid, but the whining about us in this town from folks is crap I suppose they are just mad as hell about things and we are a target, we perform tasks essential to the operation of the country, the so-named fat cats and law makers they influenced are responsible for this awful situation the country is in, can you believe the whiny **** who got billions then threw parties and bonuses and on and on and on, law-makers and politicians who make it seem they got no increase while spinning things for the "use" of government assets.

I do have empathy for those guys/gals who have been laid-off, I personally have two family members who have been laid off for over a year, have filled out and applied for countless jobs of all sorts with no luck, one even went to three of the hamburger magnets for any kind of job and was told sorry we are not hiring right now, well one of them is still getting some unemployment but the other has ran out so the family helps out, I suppose our town might be harder hit than some metro's........thanks Mr. BigShot, maybe though another college can hire a football coach for 1-5 million a year, its an effin football coach/cell phone magnate/money broker/ yada yada people, i.e. substitute whatever similiar position you may, you really think a mortgage broker who simply sold paper was worth a million in commission's????? a real estate broker telling some sap some the house they bought for 300k would be worth 400k by the time the BS creative loan balloon was due and they could sell it and make a 100 grand and then the next sap could do the same thing, the whole time the broker stashing their commision and smiling. I realize paying for two homes with one in the Bahama's is expensive but come on........enough already, I can't make it supporting the wealthy and the poor.........

Y'all need to keep your protection close at hand, I am hoping things get better, but greed is a hard thing to overcome when disguised with the clamoring yahooing disinformation about capitalism while image and marketing companies push the known mass hot buttons, now called "protecting your brand". I now bring home a couple hundred less every month......yea baby. I certainly long for days past when slow long term growth was the plan. I suppose some would say I am lucky to have what I do, I just feel like someone is trying to figure how to get it back, tax me out of it???? health care me out of it???? the long-term care thing might do it.......while some get needed assistance someone like me cannot until I am busted and sell my house, oh, I hear the cost is some outrageous amount per day......so dont plan on using your 401 for something else.....thanks again Mr. BigShot maybe I should just shoot myself.....we gotta do something about these folks with bad genes you know.

I know I am ranting......but I try not to often on these pages so pucker up an kiss it if you dont like it. Beyond the normal formal I have an advanced degree from the school of hard knocks and 24 years of service to Uncle Sam has squashed any idealism I had.

Well I have the good Lord, the family, good friends, and of course the music, if I go belly up wonder what might be left, after the Lord that is.

RT1--end of rant.

steveinaz

vc69 wrote: »

I understand your point that senior level GS is over payed and under-performing. However, you actually got a raise. How is that taking a "hit"?

Many of us in fact got nothing at all.

So become a federal employee. See my point. Stop trying to compare your job to mine. Using your logic, an out-of-work car salesman could complain that you got any paycheck at all this year, correct?

vc69

I still serve the people Steve. I am proud to do so.

steveinaz

PhantomOG wrote: »

To the government employee, a raise every year is an entitlement. Anything less than what they think they deserve they consider a "hit".

Yes, it is. Cost of living allowance, it's just not a set guaranteed amount. Jealous of our benefit package? Stop whinning and become a federal employee--show us overpaid slobs how much better you will do at it.

Knucklehead

No merit increase last year, not sure about 2010. Im fortunate to have been with the same Co. for 18 years, its really getting old trying to stretch a dollar.

steveinaz

vc69 wrote: »

I still serve the people Steve. I am proud to do so.

Me too, along with 15 years of active duty Army time.

cfrizz

steveinaz wrote: »

Trying to educate you that the typical wage-earning governement employee (GS and Military) took the hit--not the senior level. Most civilians are not aware of that, I think they should know.

Well welcome to the Club Steve. This is NO different than what happens in the corporate world!

I haven't had an increase in my pay in well over 5 years, with NO hope of getting one. I'll be very lucky if I am still employed in 6 months time the way they are cutting jobs in my dept.

So I would say DEAL WITH IT! You are a hell of a lot luckier than some of us!

hearingimpared

steveinaz wrote: »

Trying to educate you that the typical wage-earning governement employee (GS and Military) took the hit--not the senior level. Most civilians are not aware of that, I think they should know.

So did we on Social Security. No cost of living increase this year. Their reason, the cost of living hasn't gone up . . . what a bunch of BS. Don't quote me on this but this is the first time since, from what I understand, 1976 that those on Social Security haven't received a cost of living increase.

steveinaz

Cathy,

Oh, I'm good--and I AM thankful. You sound upset however. Go here: www.cpol.army.mil or here: www.usajobs.com tons of federal employee jobs, waiting to be filled. Excellent benefits, too.

I made alot of sacrifices to get where I am, and spent many years at lower levels of pay--I have earned my way here.