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For decades, public sector unions have peddled the fantasy that government employees were paid less than their counterparts in the private sector. In fact, the pay disparity is the other way around. Government workers, especially at the federal level, make salaries that are scandalously higher than those paid to private sector workers. And let's not forget private sector workers not only have to be sufficiently productive to earn their paychecks, they also must pay the taxes that support the more generous jobs in the public sector.

For decades, public sector unions have peddled the fantasy that government employees were paid less than their counterparts in the private sector. In fact, the pay disparity is the other way around. Government workers, especially at the federal level, make salaries that are scandalously higher than those paid to private sector workers. And let's not forget private sector workers not only have to be sufficiently productive to earn their paychecks, they also must pay the taxes that support the more generous jobs in the public sector.

At a time when workers pay and benefits have stagnated, federal employees average compensation has grown to more than double what private sector workers earn, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

You’ve heard of no fly and no buy lists – get ready for no work lists. Millions of workers now must apply to the DHS and prove they are not terrorists in order to be granted permission by the government to work. TWIC “is a biometric credential that ensures only vetted workers are eligible to enter a secure construction site, unescorted,” Ironworkers Local 361 in Ozone Park, New York, explains. In other words, construction workers in New York will need permission from the TSA and DHS in order to practice their profession and earn a living. SWAC is even more draconian.

Government jobs may not sound lucrative, but state and local government employees make $12 more per hour than private workers, according to a recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Spain's King Juan Carlos and his family are to take a pay cut following a recent bitterly contested cut to public sector wages, the royal palace says. The king will lose 20,900 euros (£16,400; $25,660) from his salary of just over 292,000 euros for the year - a cut of 7.1%. In total, the 8.3m euro royal budget will be cut by 100,000 euros in 2012. Public sector workers have been outraged by a recent announcement that Christmas bonuses are to go. The bonuses saw public sector workers paid double their usual salaries in December, and their removal equates to a cut of about 7%.

In California, a special program was designed to guard the safety of peace officers and judges by keeping their addresses private to protect them from criminals.
The program has since expanded to include legislators, city council members, county supervisors, prison employees, trial court workers, parking officers, Child Protective Services social workers, national park rangers, other groups, and their spouses and children, and even after they are no longer public employees.

The number of federal workers earning $150,000 or more a year has soared tenfold in the past five years and doubled since President Obama took office, a USA TODAY analysis finds.
The fast-growing pay of federal employees has captured the attention of fiscally conservative Republicans who won control of the U.S. House of Representatives in last week's elections. Already, some lawmakers are planning to use the lame-duck session that starts Monday to challenge the president's plan to give a 1.4% across-the-board pay raise to 2.1 million federal workers.

"We hear it day in and day out: the government sucks, federal employees are lazy and their positions are redundant," said march organizer Steve Ressler, founder of GovLoop, a social networking Web site for public servants.