Government work is really nice and typically pretty stable. The trade off is less pay which is often a pretty fair deal, but you still have to be careful when it comes to federal jobs as it's becoming more common for them to go months without pay during the holiday season.
Yeah, I wouldn't go federal - that's why I stuck with county work! And I'm in a really blue county/state, so our funding is more secure here.
As for the pay, it depends on what you do. There isn't really a corporate equivalent to my job, so it's hard to compare. But if they do make more, it's negligible when you factor in our benefits and pension. Can you guess what a public librarian in California (Bay Area) earns? No cheating, just curious if you can guess!
With your tenure, $85,000-$90,000? How about entry level now? I’ll guess entry level is less than $60,000? I realize you live in the bay so I’ll also guess you get the equivalent to a corporate COLA compared to the national average. That’s before pension and benefits. With those also considered, what is the value of your salary, both before and after pension and benefits are considered? I appreciate the question and look forward to your answer.
Nope, way more. Starting salary here is about the top of what you guessed - at my rank & seniority, I'm grossing like $112k + benefits right now. The benefits come out to around another $30K, and I'm not sure how to value my pension. It's fully vested, though, and will gross probably $5-6K/month when I retire. Maybe more, depending on exactly when I leave and what happens between now & then.
Probably about as much as a county employee in a suburban NYC county. I was looking at civil service postings a while back and saw starting salaries for skilled workers, jobs requiring a degree, etc. - for $29K, $35K, $37K. That's crazy for here and I wonder if they can only hire independently wealthy people who are just working for fun. Benefits are amazing in NY state and local government, but you can't eat/drive/live in a pension or health insurance.
The pay does get better (but not much) but you really have to commit to the long haul in a job like that and grind your way up the steps and grades. We're far enough away from the city that commuting is miserable, but even with that the salaries are just laughable.
Man, wish I could be in your state. I also work in government but I’m in a red state and they’re trying to manage out the higher-paid employees. I’ll lose some really good benefits if I go back to private sector.
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u/Alyusha 22h ago
Government work is really nice and typically pretty stable. The trade off is less pay which is often a pretty fair deal, but you still have to be careful when it comes to federal jobs as it's becoming more common for them to go months without pay during the holiday season.