Who are the 1,000 highest paid federal employees?
Release of list will likely renew debate over federal salaries.
Out in the commercial world, the rhetoric of the Occupy Wall Street movement has gained some traction: The terms "the 99 percent" and "the 1 percent" are understood by nearly everyone.
So who are the 1 percent in government? An Internet start-up called WikiOrgCharts has just released a list of the 1,000 highest-paid federal employees. No doubt, the list will add fuel to the fire in the argument over whether feds are overpaid. Those who say they are can truthfully point to a few federal employees who earn upward of $300,000 per year, while defenders of federal employees can point out that the highly paid feds are doctors, executives and other professionals who are highly paid in the private sector as well.
In fact, the first 30 names on the list -- the highest paid of the top 1,000 -- are mostly medical officers working for the National Institutes of Health or the Indian Health Service, as are many of the lower ranked people. The first position not tied to health care in some way is Robert Fenner, a general attorney with the National Credit Union Administration, who ranks 60th with an annual salary of $265,559.