Much is being said in FS circles about overseas pay for Foreign Service officers. I have said my piece in several places but I guess I should repeat it here. We are happy to take the 16% overseas pay cut if it is part of true reform and true change. We love our country and we want it to be solvent for our 4 kids. If that means my husband takes a pay cut, he takes a pay cut. And we will make the adjustments necessary. However, in exchange, I want real solutions. I liked these blog posts because they talk a lot about how I feel:
http://4brianhall.blogspot.com/2011/02/foreign-service-pay-congress-and-what-i.html
http://webtexans.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/writing-my-senator/
I want my reps to tackle to big problems facing us: social security, medicare, etc. No window dressing. If they are looking at cutting overseas FSO pay, fine. Cut away. However, what other excesses are they looking at cutting? Are they cutting their own pay? Are they going after the budget items that cost the most? Are they going to cut things Defense asks for even if it affects their own voters? I am confused as to why they can't just ask agencies for cuts and then put them into place. Make State figure out its own 6, or 8, or 10% or whatever to cut. Ask other agencies, defense, the executive, the judicial and the legislative branches to do the same. Let the people who know their agencies suggest cuts and then put the cuts into place. I am sure people in the State Department could come up with cuts Congress wouldn't think of. Not because Congress is dumb but because you have a different view when you are in an org.
FSOs are middle class on the pay scale but we do get benefits overseas. Housing is paid, some utilities are paid, school allowances are paid for the kids. (However, kids in the US have free school too. My husband and I pay property taxes and state income taxes that support schools our kids will never use. Also, overseas schools vary widely in quality). In some cases at larger posts, there is a health unit at post. Sometimes not. A lot just depends on where you are. It might be a garden post with great travel opportunities. Or it might be pretty rough like here. You go where you are needed and do the job regardless of where it is. I think FSOs are compensated enough to live fine if we are frugal. There are lots of unseen costs though. For example, we have always driven older cars and driven them for a long time. Our next post will not allow either of our cars and so we have to buy a new one that is less than 3 years old from the manufacture date not the model year. Not something we usually do and completely out of our control. We can make the choice to go carless of course and we might do that. Home leave expenses are on our own dime. R&R expenses outside of tickets are on our own dime and using accrued vacation time. Moving is always expensive and we move a lot. Again, I have no problems with an overseas salary cut. I just want it to be part of real cuts and real change.
The next thing I want is for my reps to realize that the FS is not a walk in the park. As I said, some posts are pretty nice. A lot of posts aren't though. It comes across as insulting to say that FSOs always have these posh wonderful lives. Yeah, it is a really cool life and I am so glad we are here. It comes at a cost sometimes though. Numerous FS bloggers have discussed this. It is not a shock and awe measure. It is simply filling the need to educate Americans, including Congress, about what the FS is and what things happen. For every FSO touring Paris, there is another FSO riding things out in Iraq, in Libya, or on the border. Again, I am so happy that my husband is here doing what he is doing but it isn't free.
The last thing I want from my reps? I want CODELs to mean something. I think any time a politician goes to a place overseas, they should submit a report of how much it really cost (including to State and to the military) and what they accomplished. As a voter and a tax payer, I think this should be public record. I want to know what my reps are accomplishing with these trips. I think they can be very valuable. I don't think anyone can understand the border without spending some time here, on the Mexican side too. I don't think anyone can grasp what a huge job "securing our borders" is without driving along the river here and driving through the wide open ranch land. I would love to have my state reps come here and to give them a personal tour of life around here. My state is heavily affected by immigration and I would love for my reps to see things more first hand. So I think good CODELs are valuable. But they need to be well planned and accounted for. I think there are good Senators and House Representatives who are trying to use CODELs to understand the world better so that they can make better laws. And I think there are some who are trying to help trade.
In the FS we are told to spend public money like it is our own and travel as inexpensively as possible. (And it is our own money. We pay taxes too, including on danger pay. The foreign income exclusion does not apply to FS pay.) We fly coach and we fly American carriers whenever possible. If we want to tour on the way, we use vacation time or weekends and we pay our own costs for those days. If there is a positive difference in cost due to our preferred routing, State keeps it. If there is a negative one, we pay it. It is also drilled into you that if you mess up on the travel regs at all, you are required to pay for the entire trip. I think of American tax payers every time we travel. I want my reps to do the same and to spend accordingly.
So pay cut? Sign us up, after you show me how this is part of true reform and show me that you are tackling the big questions. It looks like some Congressional leaders on both sides of the asile are looking at their own pay :
http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/national_world/stories/2011/02/18/copy/some-in-congress-would-cut-their-pay.html?sid=101
That is someone I will listen to when they ask us to take a pay cut too. And I will gladly hop on board for my country as part of a sustainable plan to keep America strong.
*FSO salary is public record and available here if you want to see what it looks like: (the second link is to regular gov't salary)
http://www.state.gov/m/dghr/pay/
http://www.opm.gov/oca/11tables/indexGS.asp
(to see what the non executive federal employees in your area would make, click the locality table)
These are executive pay rate tables for the FS and regular public servants. These cuts only affect mid-level and junior officers but this is just an FYI.
http://www.state.gov/m/dghr/pay/
http://www.opm.gov/oca/11tables/indexSES.asp
9 comments:
I completely agree with you! I fully support the government cutting its spending, and if this is one way they do it, then fine. If it is the ONLY way they do it, then that's absolutely ridiculous!
I know that schools in the last 3 states I've lived in have been asked to cut their budgets by large amounts, and we all know that teachers and schools aren't exactly swimming in the dough.
If they can tighten their belts, then so can we. I don't think the FSOs are overpaid, but I think they're far from underpaid as well, especially with housing being paid for, like you said.
I hope this is a trend: a general national belt-tightening.
I am sure you've already done this but you might want to remind your FS friends that it is critically important to contact your representatives and senators with your views. As a political science instructor I find that my students are always shocked to understand the degree to which their calls, emails, and letters to their elected officials make a difference.
It is important to remember that people want to be reelected and when they realize that concerned voters have an opinion the generally listen to it.
Good luck! I think with what you've gone through you deserve a pay raise and I would be happy to see my taxes going to support high quality individuals that represent our country.
Good point Em! I think the reps need to hear all sides and they really do listen. We have always gotten a reply when we have written in.
I linked to this post. If you want me to remove the link I will. Have a great day!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I have struggled to express how I feel about this issue. I felt like as I was reading you were expressing exactly what is in my heart. I hope you don't mind if I have a link to your post.
You are welcome to! I am glad if it helped at all.
In terms of the overall budget, it's chump change. Still, every little bit helps. And if every other federal employee had their pay reduced by a quarter, that'd amount to quite a bit of change.
I love how you drills this down to the personal level to make it less abstract and more like something a reader can relate to.
Personally, my own experience with "garden posts" and "pretty rough" has been that the "garden posts" are way too expensive for a junior officer to take much advantage of, and the "pretty rough" ones can be divided into those where the gunfire is directed at you and those where it's more-0r-less random and/or unaimed (i.e., "happy fire" or "celebratory gunfire").
Codels. A lot of "fact finding" goes on around the world. I've seen congressmen visiting wounded troops whip out their cell phone so a bed-bound soldier or airman could call their family.
(It should be mentioned that the cell phone in question actually belonged to the State Dept. and was provided to the codel by the FSO control officer for that visit. So the taxpayer got the bill. But I still cant' fault their impulse.)
I've also seen codels stumble off their VIP air force jet dead drunk and wanting to have the base rental car opened up in the middle of the night.
What's funny is that both events I mentioned involved the exact same congressmen on the exact same trip.
Conclusion: Our congressmen are human beings, just like regular folks, only with a bit more pull in getting what they want when they want it.
I've quoted you and linked to you here: http://consul-at-arms2.blogspot.com/2011/03/re-overseas-pay.html
Great post, I like how you went into detail on a few issues. Here's hoping they make the tough decisions and not just the politically expedient ones.
Consul,
Thanks for the link and I totally agree on it being chump change. In the overall Federal budget, this is nothing. That is what makes me upset. I am fine with a pay cut if it means that cuts are made across the board and that attention is given to the really big expenses. Cutting FS Overseas pay and not much else is like buying discount salt while you continue to eat rib eye steaks every night. Things would be tight for us too. We pay a mortgage and health expenses and student loans just like everyone else. And we'd probably skip that car and just find another way to get around. Not the end of the world, just need to be able to plan.
Your assessment of the rough posts made me laugh. Pretty apt. I forget sometimes that gunfire and grenades aren't "normal life."
Interesting take on the CODELS as well.
Thanks everyone for your input!
Post a Comment