Further Observations On The Parabolic Blow Off In Federal Compensation

Earlier, we pointed out that over the past five years (with an emphasis on the past two), government worker compensation has exploded. As the topic appears to have touched a nerve, and will shortly become the topic du jour across every radio and talk show, here are some additional observations on this parabolic blow off top of a different nature from ConfluentResearch.
Going Parabolic, it's not just the price of silver, by ConfluentResearch
Prices of precious metals are bumping against their all time highs. The price of silver, for instance, has recently hit its 30 year highs and has gone parabolic. But it's not just the price of silver that is going parabolic, as it turns out, so are government wages. Data from Moody's analytics are showing that total government expenditure on salaries and wages for federal employees has also skyrocketed as if going asymptotic. The data is comprised of total salaries and wages that were collected from 1983 through 2009.
Figure 1: Going parabolic

Source: Data provided by Moody's Analytics

There is increasing public scrutiny concerning the bloated compensation and benefits packages being handed out to federal employees as of late. Historically, federal employees receive more modest salaries relative to their private sector counterparts in exchange for job security and plush benefits. This has not been the case for the last few years, however.

A USA TODAY analysis of the data obtained from the Office of Personnel Management are also showing the same trends. In fact, at a time when pay and benefits have stagnated for most private sector workers, average compensation for federal employees has grown to more than double what private sector workers earn, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

Below is an excerpt from USA TODAY:

"Federal workers have been awarded bigger average pay and benefit increases than private employees for nine years in a row. The compensation gap between federal and private workers has doubled in the past decade."

Figure 2: Analysis of government salaries and wages