After giving away billions of dollars in Tax breaks for the wealthy, Trump cancels all pay raises to Federal employees, citing the budget could not support it.

This is incomplete and misleading.

1% 401k contribution

It's called TSP, but sure essentially a 401k, and the 1% is free.

annuity at retirement based on the last three years’ salary and years served

Almost.. it's the highest 3 consecutive years which may not be your last 3 years. Also, the annuity has 2 components:

  • FERS Component
  • CSRS Component

30 years would mean a 30% annuity

FERS is not flat 1%, it's 1.1% after 20 years, so 31% not 30%.

You forgot the CSRS component, which is another (1.5 * 5) + (1.75 * 5) + (2 * 20) = 46.25%.

So that's a 77.25% annuity after 30 years. Plus the free 1% TSP which granted is probably less than 1% in replacement income, so call it just a flat 78% altogether.

(Source for all that)

You know how much each worker contributes to that 78% annuity? On average, 0.8% of their paycheck. Compare that to private sector workers, who aim to save at least 15% of their paychecks. In case the implication isn't clear, that means a Federal salary of $50,000 is worth nearly $59,000 in the private sector.

How many private sector workers stay with the same company for 30 years? Not sure how to make a comparison.

Given how difficult it is to fire a Federal worker, I doubt many people leave unless they're extremely high performers!

I don't hold it against them or think they deserve less by any means. I have tons of family and friends in government of all levels (including my own now-retired parents) and I'm glad their retirement is handled, especially seeing how hard it is to save for us 'normies'. On the other hand I don't have a ton of sympathy if their raises are a little small.

/r/The_Mueller Thread Parent Link - cnn.com