Today, President Obama announced that his administration would freeze the pay of federal employees at their current level for two years. Well, that’s a start, if the following chart from Political Calculations showing the relative pay and benefits of federal workers with respect to the average income earner in the private sector is any indication.

Going by these figures, if all the people who work in the private sector get 6% annual raises in each of the next two years, their average pay of $60,046 would indeed finally rise to nearly match the average pay of federal workers if just their pay were frozen!

But, what about those outsize benefits federal government employees get? If we’re really concerned about getting federal spending and pay under control, wouldn’t it also make sense to bring the benefits of federal government employees into alignment with what the average employee in the private sector receives as well?