The big debate over your money:

Federal employees accuse the Cato Institute of fuzzy math. Cato, a libertarian think tank, argues that federal employees are overpaid compared to private sector counterparts. As you can imagine, the majority of Federal News Radio readers beg to differ.

“They MUST not be comparing apples to apples. I know, for a fact, even with my benefits included, that my counterparts in private sector make, on average, $35,000.00 per year MORE THAN i do!!! This research is whacked!!!” wrote Kerry Seeley Riley on our Facebook page.

“CATO comes out with this on a routine basis. It’s a case study in using statistics to prove whatever point you want. There is no apples-to-apples comparison in their study whatsoever. There are issues with government employees, but this isn’t one,” wrote Lee Gilgour.

Meanwhile, federal employees — fat cats or not — will feel poorer next year. That’s when the increase in healthcare premiums will overshadow whatever pay increase feds will get, Mike Causey reminds us in his recent column “Taking home less take home.” Federal employees under the General Schedule likely will see a 1-1.3 percent pay raise, depending on Congress. But individual premiums for health insurance under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program will rise 7.4 percent on average.

Retirees may get hit too, and worse, Causey reports. Conventional wisdom has it that the Social Security Administration will announce little to no cost-of-living adjustment in 2016. (We’ll find out for sure later this week.) But premiums for Medicare Part B are going up by more than 50 percent for retirees covered by the Civil Service Retirement System who do not receive Social Security Benefits.

Things that make you go hmm:

The Office of Personnel Management released the results of its annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey to halfhearted smiles last week. It shows employees are, overall, more optimistic about their jobs, colleagues and bosses than they were in 2014. But the bosses still need some work.

There are two new attempts to address that problem. The first comes from OPM and the Federal Chief Learning Officers Council. It has released new “frameworks” to help agencies fine tune their programs for new, aspiring or experienced managers. According to the frameworks, good leaders do certain things: they build teams, have technical credibility, manage conflicts, solve problems and communicate well. They are generally accountable, decisive, sensitive to others, honest, willing to learn and good public servants.

The second effort is more outside the box. In fact, it comes all the way from Silicon Valley. Several years ago, Google launched a program to improve its own managers. It collected data from employee surveys, managers’ performance reviews and the like to see whether A) management mattered at all and B) what distinguished a good manager from a bad one. It came up with a definitive “yes” to the first question and a list of eight traits for the second.

Some of those overlap with the new OPM framework. But Google found that being a good coach mattered the most in a supervisor role. Technical ability mattered the least. Now the departments of Labor and Energy, and the General Services Administration, are trying to see if the Google method can work on the federal government. They’re doing pilot programs under the auspices of the Performance Improvement Council and the Chief Human Capital Officers Council.

Federal News Radio readers have reacted with a mixture of hope and cynicism.

“This has possibilities. There are a lot of similarities to Google in many places in the government, with some very smart people that are pretty highly motivated, and with managers who are technical experts but have no management skills,” wrote will4567 on our website. “The main downside I see is that Congress likes to muck around with things like this and will either constrain the process or ban it when they get complaints.”

The 3 other federal stories you really shouldn’t have missed:

1.  Sailors, grab your Fitbits. The Navy proclaimed them and other wearable fitness devices as safe as bracelets. Personnel won’t be sporting Apple Watches anytime soon, though. Those are still forbidden.

2. Sequestration would lead to about 800,000 job cuts, according to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) He spoke at a recent protest of the mandated across-the-board spending cuts.

3. Young service members would benefit from proposed changes in the military’s retirement package, Navy Vice Adm. Bill Moran told sailors during a virtual town hall meeting. The National Defense Authorization Act would provide incentives for younger military personnel to invest in the Thrift Savings Plan in exchange for reduced pensions.

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