

US Gov't Pays IT Contractors Twice As Much As Its Own IT Workers - sytelus
http://it.slashdot.org/story/11/09/23/1757257/US-Govt-Pays-IT-Contractors-Twice-As-Much-As-Its-Own-IT-Workers

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evilduck
Having been a government contractor, the agency I worked worked for hired us
because their own staff were incapable of performing the job and typical
government beauracracy meant that firing/hiring would have taken longer than
the required deadlines for their projects. End result? A full staff of nearly
useless government employees and a full staff of contracted workers who
resented them and were treated as second class citizens in the work
environment.

Sure, the contracting company billed huge amounts, but our individual pay was
always less than a comparable government employee pay grade. Most us would
have gladly switched over to federal payroll if given the chance. The
contractor churn rate was abysmal because of the work environment and pay.

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jcromartie
I worked as a gov't contractor at a federal office where there was one guy who
was _actually_ tasked with putting together puzzles and framing them (for wall
decorations), because his technical skills were completely obsolete.

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evilduck
I knew a government employee who was known to be actively damaging to the
projects he was assigned to. This was known by everyone due to formal
complaints up and down my contracting company's and the government's chain of
command, and was propagated to everyone in earshot due to escalated verbal
exchanges.

I _wish_ that guy was sidelined to puzzle assembly.

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epoxyhockey
Many of the slashdot comments state what is obvious. Contractor billing rates
!= government salaries.

Once you account for government benefits, like sick time, vacation time,
health insurance and retirement, then you can make better comparisons.

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jcampbell1
According to Appendix A of the study, they baked in 36.5% for fringe benefits
including retirement, healthcare, medicaid, and life insurance.

The study does neglect vacation time, which appears to be an oversight by the
researchers.

~~~
Steko
Yeah it looks like because vacation isn't an extra cost they don't factor it
in but if you're only working 9 days out of 10 you shouldn't be compared
against a contractor working 10 days.

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RexRollman
I am a former government contractor, and all things being equal, I believe the
real reason that the government likes contractors is that they are non-union
employees who are relatively easy to obtain and release.

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veyron
This is not exclusive to the government: most large companies pay contractors
double the employee salary for the equivalent job

~~~
bradleyland
Precisely. My consulting rate was $150/hr when I last did the work. Were I
hired by just about any company to do the same job, I wouldn't make anywhere
near $312,000 a year (assuming 40 hrs a week, 52 weeks a year salary), even
when factoring in benefits. My staff counterparts within the corporations I
worked with were making right around six-figures, so in that context, the
government is doing really well.

~~~
philwelch
At those rates you start running into the backwards-bending supply curve. In
other words, instead of making $312,000 a year working 52 full weeks, tons of
people would be more than happy to make $200,000 working 33 weeks and a couple
extra days, or some other point along the line.

~~~
gte910h
Exactly. I in no way set rates to hit the mythical 2000 hours a year number
that recruiters love.

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Symmetry
The amount you pay contracting outfits to provide engineers is not at all
comparable to the wages of engineers. There are some frictional costs to
contracting agencies, but there's the HR expenses of the contracting house,
and the engineer's insurance, vacation time, and pension.

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jarin
This is exactly the same as companies. When you hire contractors, you don't
have to pay for their taxes, benefits, desk space, training, recruiter
commissions, computer, office supplies, etc., etc., etc.

~~~
veyron
I agree, but it should be noted that a recruiter gets commission if you use a
recruiter to hire an employee ...

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justin_vanw
As a former government IT contractor, I can say that all the government
employees in my office were beyond incompetent. They didn't do any work, and
would lash out at you if you suggested that they pitch in.

It was widely accepted and acknowledged, by the contractors, by contractor
management, and by government managers, that our jobs as contractors existed
entirely to do the work that the government workers did not and could not do,
due to incompetence and laziness.

~~~
rjd
I used to work for a government as an employee and got fed up trying to
deliver projects. I'm not the sort of person who can sit still and let the
hours tick by. The whole culture of "not my problem" and staff to incompetent
to do there jobs drove me nuts.

I remember after one restructure I gained a new team member. HR dissolved her
role, writing crystal reports with a GUI, and made her a .net software
developer. I can remember one day trying to explain how an IF statement worked
to her. There where members in my team which may have been better suited for
the special olympics than programming.

Then one day I gave up and quit. I contracted myself back to my manager and
since then my ability to finish a project on time and budget is something I'm
proud of.

On the money side I don't think I really earnt a lot more, I sure as hell
charged what I could get. But the fact was there was a lot more down
time/unchargable hours, time lost chasing the next project. I had to buy/lease
infrastructure of my own, liability insurance etc... When I tallied it all up
I think I was probably 10% up on what I was before hand but doing so much
extra work. But I did enjoy it a lot more being able to actually sit down and
do a days work.

I did about 6 years in total working for government (3 contracting) and Im
solely working for private sector now.

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ck2
This is common with every kind of government contractor.

They pay twice what they would for military to do something to contractors
too.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/opinion/sunday/runaway-
spe...](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/opinion/sunday/runaway-spending-on-
war-contractors.html)

It's everyone taking a cut down the line.

At least with IT it's not war profiteering.

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hermanjunge
It happens in lot of places.

RT the ideas given by @evilduck

