FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Turns out federal government workers haven't had it so bad during the recession... on average making nearly twice as much as workers in the private sector.
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USA Today puts the average federal worker's pay at about $71,000... compared with about $40,000 in the private sector.
What's more - the number of federal workers making $100,000 or more went from 14-percent to 19-percent during the first 18-months of the recession... This at a time when more than seven million Americans lost their jobs in the private sector.
And, This increase in federal workers making 6-figure salaries is happening everywhere - big and small agencies, high and low-tech jobs. The reasons for the jump in pay are substantial pay raises along with new salary rules.
Consider this: Federal employees will get a two-percent pay raise in January 2010.
50 million Social Security recipients will get no cost of living increase next year for the first time in more than 30 years. But government workers are getting a raise. The reason is that social security increases are pegged to the cost of living. And that actually went down over the last 12 months - which means the cost of living is going down.
So… no increase for the nation's elderly on Social Security… but government workers get a raise - even though they already average almost twice as much as workers in the private sector.
Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?
Here’s my question to you: What does it mean that the average federal worker makes almost twice as much as the average private sector worker?
Tune in to the Situation Room at 6pm to see if Jack reads your answer on air.
And, we love to know where you’re writing from, so please include your city and state with your comment.