Should Feds Take a Pay Cut?

Media company McClatchy is asking its readers whether federal employees, like many Americans, should be asked to take a pay cut. The private sector job market is not expected to reach its pre-recession hiring levels until 2015 or later, the article states, but the federal government suffers no such recessionary hangover.

Earlier this week, The Washington Post's Ed O'Keefe noted that President Obama had encouraged Spain to develop an austerity budget that includes a 5 percent pay cut for the country's government employees. O'Keefe then questioned whether the president could request a similar pay cut here if things got worse.

On his first full day in office, the president also froze the pay of about 100 senior White House officials who earn more than $100,000 a year. Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, has said the White House pay freeze should be extended to all federal employees, at least until the economy recovers and private sector wages improve.

So should federal civilian workers be asked to accept a pay freeze or even a pay cut, particularly given the tough economy and the massive amount of debt the government has taken on? Why or why not? What impact would such a move have on future efforts to recruit and retain federal IT workers?