Normalize Government Salaries

Years ago, before the recession, salaries kept increasing.  Colleges would promise graduates larger and larger salaries.  Government employees received less money than non government employees, and times seemed good.

When the recession started, lack of business resulted in significant layoffs, and the highest paid employees began to migrate from non government to government jobs.  Today, government and public utility salaries are far greater than private sector non government jobs.

At a recent conference attended by several politicians, a concern was discussed relative to the future of Engineers, Technicians and Craftsmen, and the answer was shocking.  Several political leaders stated that US manufacturers need to realize that manufacturing in the US will decrease year after year; and that existing employees who have chosen professions including engineers, technicians and craftsmen will have three choices:

a)  Retrain.  One of the leaders actually said that if an engineer is smart enough the engineer should retrain for something else.  With a decreased need for manufacturing, US won’t need engineers in the future;

b)  Move to China.  This same political leader suggested that since manufacturing is moving to China, that engineers, technicians and crafts people that desire to remain in their field should move to China;  and

c)  Collect Unemployment Compensation.  Again this politician went on to say that if the engineer, technician or crafts person doesn’t want to retrain, or fields too old to retrain, or doesn’t want to move to China, then he suggested they collect unemployment compensation.  He went on further to say, that under our current administration, unemployment will never run out.

… and that’s from a political leader.  Believe it or not this guy’s affiliation was republican.  Like I said, neither party seems to understand the problem, and since politicians are rarely, if ever, from the manufacturing sector, or would consider themselves an engineer, technician or craftsman, it is not that difficult to believe.

Normalize Salaries

So what does salary normalization mean.  For manufacturing to exist in the US, government and public sector employees salaries need to be reduced and become more inline with normalized private sector salaries.  If for no other reason, how can America afford to pay government and public sector employees so much money when the tax base continues to dwindle.  Two years ago, one of my best employees, an individual we were paying $60,000 per year was given an offer to leave Nova Co and work for Florida Power & Electric for a salary in excess of $175,000!  And for FPL to pay that kind of salary, rates for electricity have since increased throughout Florida.  I hope you agree that there is something significantly off balance.

And benefits.  Can you guess which type of employee, one working for the government/public sector or private sector receives the best benefits?  Then to top it off, who do you think pays for government employee benefits?

Limit Unemployment Compensation Terms.

Qualified employees remain unemployed waiting for high paying salaries.  When President Obama said that every person desiring to work should have a job and be paid well, do you think he implied that those unemployed should stay unemployed until the private sector can afford to pay them what they were making before they lost their job?  In Florida there are many engineering/manufacturing jobs available that pay realistic salaries, however the number of candidates available to fill these jobs is at an all-time low.  As an employer, we compete with unemployment compensation all the time.  Apparently many qualified workers would rather collect $1,200 per month plus part-time income rather than accept a job paying less than they were paid years ago.  If there were term limits on unemployment compensation, (a) more people would have jobs, and (b) unemployment costs (and rates) would decrease.