I'll jump in medias res to address some points made in this thread, using my perspective as a state employee.
1.) The median for salaries for IT personnel in the state of Texas are 50k-60k. Rarely do we get employers with 6 figures or even close to it. Those are very high level, and would be CIO's or Chief architects in private companies. Remember that Texas is a large state with well over a hundred thousand employees, servicing a population of ~25 million. At Dell, for example, where I used to work, just about all middle to senior software developers made close to or above six figures.
The site I linked to does not distinguish between levels or employees. So a programmer could easily be just a desk clerk, or the Security Lead for the entire department.
I can't speak for Psychiatrist or the finance guys salaries, which is admittedly jaw-dropping, but I assume there must be a market for them out there.
2.) Not sure how moving all new employees to 401k plans would work. The retirement system here in Texas, and I'm sure in other states, depends on current employees contributions to stay afloat. Private companies can write it off, but the state would have to sell the wirte off to the tax payers. Tax payers, I think, would simply prefer that they up government employee contributions (as they just did this past January) in any crises.
3.) Double dipping is a big problem where I work, imo. Not only is a person essentially drawing double salary for doing the same work as another, but due to some arcane federal regulation double-dippers are not allowed to contribute to the pension fund. Its a nice gig and every retiree here seemed to be angling for it. The result is that there is less money going to the pension fund because those jobs are tied up by the retiree and less jobs are available for younger, more energetic personnel.
However, the legislature seems to have wised up and is now forcing the department that hires a double-dipper to pay the contribution out of the departments budget. So a double-dipper better be worth it to the department to be rehired, instead of just being buddies with the hiring manager.
1.) The median for salaries for IT personnel in the state of Texas are 50k-60k. Rarely do we get employers with 6 figures or even close to it. Those are very high level, and would be CIO's or Chief architects in private companies. Remember that Texas is a large state with well over a hundred thousand employees, servicing a population of ~25 million. At Dell, for example, where I used to work, just about all middle to senior software developers made close to or above six figures.
The site I linked to does not distinguish between levels or employees. So a programmer could easily be just a desk clerk, or the Security Lead for the entire department.
I can't speak for Psychiatrist or the finance guys salaries, which is admittedly jaw-dropping, but I assume there must be a market for them out there.
2.) Not sure how moving all new employees to 401k plans would work. The retirement system here in Texas, and I'm sure in other states, depends on current employees contributions to stay afloat. Private companies can write it off, but the state would have to sell the wirte off to the tax payers. Tax payers, I think, would simply prefer that they up government employee contributions (as they just did this past January) in any crises.
3.) Double dipping is a big problem where I work, imo. Not only is a person essentially drawing double salary for doing the same work as another, but due to some arcane federal regulation double-dippers are not allowed to contribute to the pension fund. Its a nice gig and every retiree here seemed to be angling for it. The result is that there is less money going to the pension fund because those jobs are tied up by the retiree and less jobs are available for younger, more energetic personnel.
However, the legislature seems to have wised up and is now forcing the department that hires a double-dipper to pay the contribution out of the departments budget. So a double-dipper better be worth it to the department to be rehired, instead of just being buddies with the hiring manager.