"The data is bad, and the studies are wrong'

From The Center for American Progress, the devil is in the details:

“In 2009, federal civil servants earned average pay and benefits of $123,049. Employees in the private sector made $61,051 in total compensation,” the Inky’s editorial board said, referring to a misleading USA Today article that we called out in October. The Timeslikewise gave voice to a CATO Institute report that “found that federal civilian workers had an average annual wage of $81,258 in 2009, compared with $50,464 for the nation’s private-sector workers.”

Again, for the hearing impaired: The data is bad, and the studies are wrong. For the straight dope read today’s Progress Report analysis and Lauren Smith’s “Correcting Myths About Federal Pay: Conservatives Compare Apples to Oranges.”