How much do government employees get paid?

Civics 101

NHPR

History, Government, Society & Culture

4.2 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2024

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Government salaries vary an awful lot; from $100 a year to $11.5 million. So who makes what? Today we divide the issue of taxpayer-funded salaries in two. How much officials make, and then how much they really make. Why do so many politicians make money once they leave office? How much can you get from speaking at events? And how do lobbyists affect not only policy, but their career trajectory? Our guest is Anna Massoglia from Open Secrets, the "nation's premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics." Click here to get a hat and/or socks during our podcast fund drive! CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hannah, you ever played the game Life.
0:05.0	Oh yeah, that game makes me kind of nervous for some reason.
0:11.0	If anyone out there hasn't played Life, it is kind of a game where you spin a little wheel and you move your car around, you go to college, make money, inherit your aunt's skunk farm and have babies.
0:22.0	Yeah, that's, I would say that's a pretty decent summary.
0:25.0	You know, it's kind of a bleak game when you think about it.
0:30.0	It's basically make as much money as you can and you win at life.
0:34.2	Do you remember what the best paying jobs were in life?
0:37.4	I think so.
0:39.0	I actually played a few years ago,
0:40.9	so I know that they have updated the game I'm pretty sure it was
0:43.9	doctor and lawyer. Yep those were the top earners for me too and I bring it up
0:48.0	Hannah because you'll notice that president member of Congress, Chief Justice,
0:54.2	those weren't options in the game of life.
0:56.2	They sure weren't, Nick.
0:57.8	They weren't.
1:01.2	I know it changes every few years but how much money do those people make in the real
1:06.1	world? Well this is a big old Harry Gordian knot Hannah so I'm gonna cut it into you're listening to civics 101 I'm
1:15.4	the capideche I'm Hannah McCarthy and today we're talking about how much money
1:19.7	government employees make and yeah I'm gonna do a part A and a part B. Part A is going to be me pretty much rattling off salaries of various government officials. And part B is where we'll talk about how much they really make, as in money outside of their law
1:36.0	determined salary.
1:37.0	Ooh, okay, let's do it.
1:39.0	All right, so let's just get right down to it.
	...

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