From Eric Dondero:

A new study released by USAToday finds that salaries for federal employees are far outpacing those for comparable occupations in the private sector.

From USA Today "Federal workers earning double their private counterparts" Aug. 10:

At a time when workers' pay and benefits have stagnated, federal employees' average compensation has grown to more than double what private sector workers earn, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

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.

Federal civil servants earned average pay and benefits of $123,049 in 2009 while private workers made $61,051 in total compensation, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The data are the latest available.

The federal compensation advantage has grown from $30,415 in 2000 to $61,998 last year.

Continuing:

Chris Edwards, a budget analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute, thinks otherwise. "Can't we now all agree that federal workers are overpaid and do something about it?" he asks.

One critic of the increase, Republican Cong. Eric Cantor of Virginia:

"Americans are fed up with public employee pay scales far exceeding that in the private sector."

Though USAToday also cites Democrats and Union officials who oppose any pay freeze for federal employees.