Time for government employees pay to be cut
 

Federal mediators make between 100,000 to 150,000 per year. I have not received a raise in 5 years and make a third of their salaries. They enforce the antiquated Railway Labor Act which allows airlines to not give raises for years while they do nothing. What is their purpose again? Since the US Government is losing so much money, I propose a 50 percent pay cut and drastic reduction in benefits for these and other government employees. If it's good enough for us, it should be good enough for them....

Agree 100%!!

And when other civilian sector jobs (including the airlines) were making MUCH more than any gov't worker, are you also suggesting an equalization of pay?
It's a crime what has happened to the pay for all ranks of professional pilots, but I'm not sure if attacking gov't pay across the ranks is really a sensible solution to the problem. It sounds to me more like you are mad at the Federal Mediators who you dont see as having done any good for your segment of employment.

USMCFLYR

Nope not me I am tired of the pay from top to bottom(with the exception of the miltary), that goes for most of the state employees also.

I have seen that statistic too along with the average private sector salary of $45,000 a year. The problem is there are more skilled government jobs than private sector. The bulk of the private sector is full of part-time minimum wage jobs that employ a lot of high school age students too. The government does not have many jobs comparable to that. I would like to see a salary comparison between the same jobs for the private and federal sector.

Skilled like TSA
 

You bring up a valid point but do you really think the skill set of the TSA worker standing on the other side of the metal detector waving you through is that much higher than the grocery store checker?

There are federal employees at National parks picking up trash and scooping gravel, there are low level government jobs.

If you compare the salary range for a medical laboratory tech employed with the federal government vs. your local hospital, Uncle pays more and has more bennies!

Most government employees over the last few years have masters and above. Most in foreign languages and in other high demand fields. A few years ago there was an article about this in The Wallstreet Journal. The feds were saying they were having a hard time filling positions when they were offering $65,000 and the private sector was offering 150,000 or more.

Although I am no big fan of TSA in any way, shape, or form, but at least SOME TSA workers (maybe the ones reading the actual X-ray machines have a greater skill set than working the scanner at the grocery line now don't you think? I mean I don't use the self check out lanes but I'm sure with some trainng I could figure it out. I do know that the check out line person doesn't seem to know how to make change without the registar giving them the answer. Finally, maybe they make a little more due the supposed reponsilbility of the job? I don't think that are going to be stopping the next great terrorist attack, but it isn't too far of a stretch to say that the job has greater consequences due to failure than the check out line person. A lot of my gripes with TSA (and I don't even deal with them day-in, day-out like airline pilots) is with the QUALITY/TYPE of people they hire sometimes rather than the job they do (though I think the job ought to be be a little different - see old thread about other airlines security procedures)

USMCFLYR

Please don't say most without backing it up. Not to be forgotten in this argument is the retirement system and health care coverage for government employees is worth 2 to 3 times what the private sector provides.