In a discussion with American Federation of Government Employees President J David Cox, Al Sharpton did not challenge a claim that furloughed government workers were taking home $500 a week paychecks. In fact, Sharpton himself said that these workers were not making six figures, not even "high" five figures. These furloughed employees are "struggling."
SHARPTON: J. David, you represent hundreds of thousands of these workers. pay or aren't allowed to go to who are either working without work. Are many of these people living from paycheck to paycheck? Give me a sense of what a lot of these workers are going through. Because I had one Congressman that came on the show saying this would be like a paid vacation, they'll get their money later. They can just kind of take a paid vacation now.
COX: Reverend Al, these folks most of them make an average of $500 a week take home. They are living paycheck to paycheck. And federal employees want to go to work. They want to go to work, process social security claims, process veterans claims, inspect the food, make this country safe, protect us from criminals. We want to go to work, and these people are going to feel pain. Those that are furloughed and those that are being required to go to work but will not be paid on payday.
SHARPTON: So when you hear people talking about the 800,000 people, many you represent, people ought to know these are not people making six figures. These are people working every day and struggling.
COX: Truly struggling every day. These are the screeners at the airport, the TSA employees, correctional officers in the bureau of prisons, border patrol agents. Many of them are clerical individuals doing many, many important things. They are the housekeepers at the National Institute of Health. They're the nursing assistants at Bethesda hospital.
Furloughed workers will get back pay, as the House voted unanimously 407-0 to pay government employees for the time they were furloughed from work. However, the average salary of government employee has risen steadily over the years. According to the Washington Post, the average employee makes $78,500 a year. That figure is an increase of $1800 over the last 2 years.
"American Federation of Government Employees public policy director Jacque Simon said in an e-mail. "There are 4,744 more employees making $140,000 or more than there were a year ago, while there are 14,004 fewer federal employees in the GS-5 to GS-9 range. Most of our members are in the GS-5 to GS-9 range and earn anywhere from about $31,000 to $68,000, depending on what part of the country they work in."
