The recent announcement from Obama to freeze govt salaries for 2 years worries me about the quality of govt services going forward. Many govt civilians trade off higher salaries in the private sector for the stability and benefits of the federal govt. But some civilians take the govt jobs, because they love public service in a particular domain (i.e. defense, education, etc) and many of them are actually really great. In my personal experience with the federal govt, I would estimate that a smart, motivated civilian is easily worth the equivalent of 25 private contractors. The problem however is that these exceptional civilians need to be rewarded for their good work to keep them incentivized to stay with the govt.
If talented people leave the govt, they most likely will be replaced with less talented, less motivated individuals and because they are less capable, they will require more people to perform the job of the single talented individual. Reminds me of one of my favorite George Washington quotes:
“My observation is that whenever one person is found adequate to the discharge of a duty… it is worse executed by two persons, and scarcely done at all if three or more are employed therein.“
Sadly, I think this penny-wise, pound-foolish move to reduce federal spending will actually end up increasing the size of govt. A better move in my opinion would have been to pursue the Pay For Performance schemes where civilians could get compensated based on their contributions instead of their seniority.
