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Political Off Topic DC area tops US income list; average fed employee makes $126,000 a year...
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Author | Topic: DC area tops US income list; average fed employee makes $126,000 a year... |
BeWare POA Site Supporter Prowler Junkie From:Acworth , Georgia , USA |
posted 10-19-2011 03:23 PM
Top Income in U.S. Is...Gasp!...Wash. D.C. Area QBy Frank Bass and Timothy R. Homan - Oct 19, 2011 12:00 AM ET . .Federal employees whose compensation averages more than $126,000 and the nation’s greatest concentration of lawyers helped Washington edge out San Jose as the wealthiest U.S. metropolitan area, government data show. The U.S. capital has swapped top spots with Silicon Valley, according to recent Census Bureau figures, with the typical household in the Washington metro area earning $84,523 last year. The national median income for 2010 was $50,046. The figures demonstrate how the nation’s political and financial classes are prospering as the economy struggles with unemployment above 9 percent and thousands of Americans protest in the streets against income disparity, said Kevin Zeese, director of Prosperity Agenda, a Baltimore-based advocacy group trying to narrow the divide between rich and poor. “There’s a gap that’s isolating Washington from the reality of the rest of the country,” Zeese said. “They just get more and more out of touch.” Total compensation for federal workers, including health care and other benefits, last year averaged $126,369, compared with $122,697 in 2009, according to Bloomberg News calculations of Commerce Department data. There were 170,467 federal employees in the District of Columbia as of June. The Washington area includes the District of Columbia, parts of Northern Virginia, eastern Maryland and eastern West Virginia. Embracing K Street “Wall Street has moved to K Street,” said Barbara Lang, president and chief executive officer of the DC Chamber of Commerce, referring to the Washington street that’s home to prominent lobbying firms. “Those two industries clearly have grown in our city.” Still, household income fell even in Washington by 0.8 percent last year from $85,168. In the San Jose area, home to Cupertino-based Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) in San Jose, income dropped to $83,944 from $84,483 in 2009. Median income in both metro areas has been falling since 2008, when it reached a record in each place. The 4.7 percent drop in Silicon Valley during that period was three times larger than the Washington region’s 1.5 percent fall. ‘Shallower Recession’ “The region did experience a shorter, shallower recession than San Jose,” said Sara Kline, a Washington analyst at Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “The federal government stepped in to take efforts to dampen the recession. It was focused to some extent in the D.C. area as well, given the presence of federal workers there and contractors. That insulated it from more of a downturn.” Federal government spending for programs excluding Social Security and Medicare in fiscal year 2011, which ended on Sept. 30, rose to $2.38 trillion from $2.3 trillion the previous year. Lawyer Capital Associate attorneys in the Washington area who have worked between one and eight years had a median salary of $186,250, compared with the national median for their peers of $123,521, according to a survey by the Washington-based National Association for Law Placement. Lobbyists play a prominent role in the Washington economy. In 2010 there were 12,964 registered lobbyists, with most working in or around the nation’s capital, according to figures compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington- based research group that tracks political spending. Spending on lobbying efforts reached a record $3.51 billion last year, up from $3.49 billion in 2009. Contractor Central With about 5.6 million residents, the Washington region has an aggregate household income of about $221.4 billion. The San Jose area has about 1.8 million people and income of $67 billion, according to census figures gathered from the American Community Survey. The annual survey polls about 3 million American households to provide annual economic, demographic, social and housing characteristics for the nation. The Brownsville-Harlingen metro area in southeast Texas along the border with Mexico had the lowest median household income last year at $31,736. Such income inequality is on display in Washington as well. In the District of Columbia, almost 11 percent of the city’s population qualifies as “very poor,” meaning they make less than half the poverty rate, or about $11,025 a year for a family of four and $5,415 for a single person. The same figure for San Jose is about 6 percent, according to census figures. “Even though we’ve got this very healthy group of government employees and contractors, there’s still a lot of people left behind,” said Douglas Besharov, a professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy. |
BeWare POA Site Supporter Prowler Junkie From:Acworth , Georgia , USA |
posted 10-19-2011 03:33 PM
Reid signals government jobs must take priority over private-sector jobs By Pete Kasperowicz - 10/19/11 10:16 AM ET Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday indicated Congress needs to worry about government jobs more than private-sector jobs, and that this is why Senate Democrats are pushing a bill aimed at shoring up teachers and first-responders. "It's very clear that private-sector jobs have been doing just fine; it's the public-sector jobs where we've lost huge numbers, and that's what this legislation is all about," Reid said on the Senate floor.
The legislation Reid is defending is part of Obama's jobs package. Vice President Biden was in Pennsylvania, an important election state, on Tuesday to push for the administration's plan on increasing the number of teachers.
Despite these comments, a spokesman for Reid pointed out that Senate Democrats have tried to pass several bills aimed at spurring private sector job growth, but have been blocked by Republicans. Among other things, Democrats have proposed tax cuts to help companies hire workers and write off expenses, as well as infrastructure jobs that would add to private construction payrolls. "Senator Reid believes that Congress must work to spur job-creation in the private sector, which is why he's working to pass tax cuts for small businesses to hire new workers, tax cuts for small businesses to write off business expenses, and investments to create private-sector construction jobs," Spokesman Adam Jentleson said. "Republicans are blocking all of these proposals to create jobs in the private sector because they care more about defeating President Obama than putting Americans back to work." Reid also said a majority of people polled support the bill, and that the tax hike needed to fund the $35 billion spending program is minimal. "My friend, the Republican leader … is complaining about a tax of one-half of 1 percent … on people who make more than $1 million a year to pay for a program that would stop teachers from being laid off and rehire some of the teachers that have been laid off," Reid said. Democrats who support the bill have said it would help save 400,000 teacher jobs and thousands of first-responder jobs that have either been cut or could soon be cut. Reid said Wednesday that these layoffs are "rooted in the last administration," but did not explain further. Senate Democrats are hoping to pass S. 1723 as early as this week, although votes could be delayed until early November, depending on the progress made on passing a 2012 spending bill. Reid also dismissed efforts by the Republican House to ease environmental regulations as a way to create jobs. "The Republican response has been cutting back environmental health safeguards, I guess hoping that a sicker, more polluted country is a better place to create jobs, and it's not," Reid said. |
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