Warm fuzzies … Income gap … Halos and horns
A new survey reports that women federal government workers are narrowing the income gap with their male colleagues, but still feel they are treated less fairly and given less “empowerment” than male bureaucrats.
That was the finding of a newly released Partnership for Public Service report on workplace differences among men and women laboring for Uncle Sam.
Median salaries for women now approach 93 percent of those earned by men in administrative occupations; in 1976, they were 83 percent. In professional posts, women make about 83 percent of the salaries their male colleagues receive; in 1976, it was just 70 percent.
As a whole, women are slightly less satisfied overall with their jobs than men: 66.1 percent of women expressed satisfaction, compared with 67.9 percent of men.
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About half of the career staffers at the White House’s budget office want to join a union, but not because they seek more money or better benefits.
Instead, the 400 workers at the Office of Management and Budget who signed a petition to join a union this past week say they are looking for appreciation and more say in how their workplace is run.
They told the American Federation of Government Workers that they are not unhappy with their jobs, even though many are expected to work late and on weekends. What they want is to be recognized for their dedication to their mission and to be consulted when reorganization is contemplated, according to the union.
The petition, which the Obama administration is not denouncing, heads now to the Federal Labor Relations Authority, which will weigh whether to authorize a vote.
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Now that President Barack Obama is formally a candidate for re-election, the Hatch Act has kicked in, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel has reminded the vast federal bureaucracy. That’s the law that prohibits government employees from engaging in political activity while on the job.
Specifically, the special counsel warned, workers need to know that they are no longer allowed to engage in any political activity to benefit — or hurt — Obama’s campaign for four more years in the White House.
Among the guidance imparted by the special counsel: The only photographs allowed of Obama are the official ones that hang in most federal offices across the country. And, the memo said, those pictures must be displayed “in a traditional size and manner, and should not be altered in any way (e.g., the addition of halos or horns).”
Email Lisa Hoffman at hoffmanl@shns.com. For more columns, go to www.scrippsnews.com.
Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews .com.