Why Federal Workers Get Paid More

As measured by head count, the federal government isn't growing, and it hasn't really grown since the 1970s. The number of federal workers was 2.83 million in February, according to the monthly employment report released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.1489603783680 As I wrote in a subsequent column, that's about as many federal workers as there were in 1975 -- and while the rising use of government contractors changes the picture somewhat, it doesn't seem to change it much. Over this same period, total nonfarm payroll employment in the U.S. has almost doubled.

So that's really interesting -- and seemingly at odds with the widespread view that "big government" just keeps getting bigger and scarier. It also raises questions about whether the massive spending cutbacks at most government agencies that President Donald Trump is proposing today are really such a brilliant idea.