A North Carolina-based fed said he’s preparing to bail out (or worse) if Congress votes to cut salaries 8.7 percent for all feds making $100,000 or more.

Base pay for members of the House and Senate is $174,000. A few have refused past pay raises and earn less. Most take the money. In a Congress where roughly half the members are millionaires, a pay cut would hardly be noticed. But it would be noticed big time in the executive branch of the government. Last year, the Washington Post said the average white collar federal worker earned $78,500 while the median federal salary (despite three years of pay freezes) had risen to $74,714.

Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.) has introduced the bill that would cut the pay of feds making six-figures. So far, it has zero (as in none, nada) cosponsors.

The anxious Agriculture Department worker predicts that if the pay cut becomes law, it could trigger the long-anticipated retirement tsunami as thousands of feds quit while they can. “I am packing in preparation as I type,” he said.

So what are the odds?

With Congress, you almost never know. But, is it possible the pay cut will happen? Short answer: Yes. Better question, is the pay cut likely and what are the odds?

The likelihood of a federal pay cut this year, or in the foreseeable future, is probably slightly greater than a meteor hitting downtown Austin, Texas, within the next couple of years. Or of genetically engineered piranhas doubling in size every day and pouring into the Atlantic and eating Florida or Cuba. For a preview, click here.

Back in 2010, Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.) proposed cutting congressional pay by $8,700. That, in case you have forgotten, didn’t happen.

The last time there was a federal pay cut was during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Congressional pay was $10,000. Members cut 10 percent during the first days of the FDR administration. It took another hit the following year, going from $9,000 to $8,500 per annum. Before that, the last congressional salary surgery was during the Panic of 1873.

Up until the 1850s, members of Congress got about $6 per day. When actually at work. The operative word being “work.”

Many people feel that Congress has done a rotten job in recent years. That the Henry Clays and Daniel Websters just don’t seem to be happening. Some blame ever increasing and extended breaks. Congress set a time-out record last year. This produces hasty, last-minute legislative cramming, which in turn sometimes produces things like costly, disruptive shutdowns.

Maybe the per diem idea could be revived. Pay for work, when actually worked.

Meantime, if you are lucky enough to earn $100,000 or more, don’t quit your daytime government job just yet!

NEARLY USELESS FACTOID:

By Michael O’Connell

James Cameron, the director of such blockbusters as “Aliens,” “Terminator,” Avatar” and “Titanic”, got his start in Hollywood as the screenwriter of “Piranha Part Two: The Spawning”.

Source: IMDB

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