In Washington D.C., the Federal government shut- down Federal facilities due to the massive snow storms that have buried the capitol, and surrounding areas, in recent days.
The “snow day’, as it is called, was called by the Office of Personnel Management. (OPM), and it was a proper and necessary measure to protect the safety of Federal employees, etc.
The OPM estimates that there are 230,000 Federal employees that were affected, and the cost of lost productivity is about $ 100 million dollars, per day.
The $ 100 million dollar figure caught my eye, so I found my calculator, and did some basic math.
I’m not sure what constitutes ‘lost productivity’; I assume that it is employee wages, only, because the $ 100 million dollar figure is too low to include wages plus overhead/benefits, and other indirect expenses. It would be much higher, certainly over $ 200 million dollars, if such other costs were included.
At $ 100 million/day, that is $ 26 billion/year.
The average hourly rate for Federal employees in the D.C. area that was affected by the ’snow day’, is $ 100 million/(230,000 X 8 hrs) = $ 54/hour.
At $ 54/hr, the average annual salary is $ 112,320/year.
Let that sink in…. the AVERAGE annual salary is $ 112,320.
Believe it or not, government employment used to mean low wages, but good benefits. NOW, it means high wages, and high benefits.
It is no wonder that we are in such dire financial straits. The Federal government, excluding the Postal Service, is the largest employer in the country with over 2 million employees, and they pay high wages, and provide ‘Cadillac benefits’.
The Washington, D.C., area includes only 15% of total Federal employees. Considering the area, it is possible that the rate is skewed higher than the other 85% of the Federal employees who are located around the country, and the world.
Allowing for a generous 20% differential, an adjusted national average rate of $ 43.00/hour (80% of $ 54.00), the cost of labor only, for 2 million workers is 2 million x 2,080 work hours/year X $ 43.00/hour = $ 178.88 billion dollars.
At a generous minimum, it cost the us $ 178.88 billion dollars in labor costs, alone, just to spend our tax dollars.
And, according to the current Administration, somehow, the solution is to continue to expand and grow the government by hiring even more Federal employees.
Are they insane ?
And that is just my opinion.
Spencer Holly
www.angrycalifornian.com
0095
==================================
OTHER RESOURCES
===================================
OPM Calls A Federal Snow Day in D.C.
===================================
Federal workers, kids get day off as Mid-Atlantic cleans up from massive snow; more on the way
===================================
