Lawmaker: Tie Feds' Pay to U.S. Economic Performance So They Have 'Skin in the Game'

Federal employee advocates expressed outrage over this week’s House and Senate Republican budget proposals, complaining the plans would effectively cut workers’ pay by requiring them to contribute more toward their retirement.

Under a different Republican proposal unveiled last week, certain feds would see significantly larger reductions in pay. Rep. Tom Rice, R-S.C., introduced a bill that would cut the basic pay of civil servants making more than $100,000 a year by 8.7 percent.

One federal employee union said the measure was “one of the most aggressively anti-federal employee bills introduced in recent history.” Rice has defended the bill, however, calling it necessary to ensure feds are invested in their jobs.

In a newsletter sent to supporters, Rice said that since 2007, real median household income has dropped 8.7 percent, while “the average federal bureaucrat salary has ballooned by nearly 18 percent.”

“The federal employees receiving pay raises are the people making decisions, as well as implementing regulations impacting our impish economic recovery,” Rice said. “Since their salaries are not tied to economic success or supported by consumer spending, bureaucrats do not have any skin in the game. Simply, they do not feel the consequences of the federal government’s grip on the economy.”

That is why Rice proposed -- after the initial 8.7 percent pay cut for feds earning six figures -- to tie their pay to percentage changes in real median household income in the United States, as calculated by the Census Bureau. High-earners would have to hope that the median household income – after it’s adjusted for inflation -- starts going up.

“If federal government employees’ jobs and pay were directly tied to the economy, like most Americans, they would likely approach decision making differently,” Rice said.

More than 300,000 federal workers at non-Defense agencies made six figures in 2014. Their pay should improve only when the economy does, Rice said. The congressman supported his proposal by citing his own poll of his constituents, 72 percent of whom said it was the right approach. 

(Image via larry1235 / Shutterstock.com)