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Most federal workers receive only average pay

I am writing to respond to Mr. Gary Koca’s letter regarding federal employees’ benefits. I am sure Mr. Koca has good intentions by saying what he did, but he just does not state the facts. Mr. Koca states that he is a professional, indicating that he was likely a high management type while employed by the federal government. If you are in the high grade ranks, then the pay and benefits are sufficient to meet your family’s needs.

I speak for the overwhelming number of federal employees who are not in the small ranks of “professional” — employees who earn just an average wage for the hard work they do. It is hard to raise a family with average pay and benefits in America today. With no cost-of-living increases for the last three years, and increases in retirement costs and health insurance, with no increase in benefits, federal employees have not been treated well since the Reagan era. Add in days without pay for furloughs due to spending cuts from Washington.

A cut in the cost-of-living factor would rob Social Security annuitants, Medicare participants and federal employees of tens of thousands of dollars in their retirement years. Mr. Koca also mentions the Thrift Savings Plan, which was initiated to help post 1985 federal employee hires have a decent retirement because President Reagan gutted the existing Civil Service Retirement System and put new federal employees on Social Security, which pays far less in benefits than Civil Service paid.

I guess Mr. Koca subscribes to the current “conservatism” view that we should as a country compete to pay our current employees and retirees as little as possible and make us a Third World country for our children and grandchildren to live in.

James Glover

President

Chapter 1309 NARFE

Schaumburg

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