Larry, you have certainly shown that some contract employees make more than some federal employees and that they somehow managed to score benefits.
That doesn't mean on a whole that contractors are more expensive in general. The Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, certainly thinks that contractors are cheaper. From their site: Most federal contract workers employed by private business do not enjoy wages and benefits comparable to their counterparts in the federal workforce. In fact, the federal government currently does nothing to ensure that contract workers employed with federal funds are paid a living wage. In fact, there are some lawmakers as well as the EPI that argue that some contractors pay their employees too little. That is, the contractors don't pay their employees a "living wage". In Feb 2010, the Government Accountability Office comptroller Gene Dodar with Representatives Robert Andres and Patrick Murphy asked for a study to "... quantify the taxpayer burden associated with a certain company if they pay so little that workers and their families qualify for federal safety-net benefits," ( http://www.govexec.com/pdfs/040110rb1b.pdf) The EPI has estimated that of 2 million contract employees in 2006, nearly 20 percent earned less than $9.91 per hour, putting them below the poverty threshold. Forty percent earned less than a livable wage, which varies by location, but is defined as the pay rate necessary to meet minimum standards of living. Also, legislation introduced by Representative Luis Gutierrez would require businesses to pay workers employed on federal contracts a living wage, defined as $8.20 an hour. <http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/briefingpapers_livwage/>So, there still isn't any definitive proof that federal employees are cheaper. However, there is support that they cost more, even from left wing think tanks. J - Ninety percent of politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation. - Henry Kissinger Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel. - John Quinton ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:340864 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
