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"Beltway Earnings Make U.S. Capital Richer Than Silicon Valley

Federal employees whose compensation averages more than $126,000 and the nation’s greatest concentration of lawyers helped Washington edge out San Jose as the wealthiest U.S. metropolitan area, government data show.
The U.S. capital has swapped top spots with Silicon Valley, according to recent Census Bureau figures, with the typical household in the Washington metro area earning $84,523 last year. The national median income for 2010 was $50,046.

The figures demonstrate how the nation’s political and financial classes are prospering as the economy struggles with unemployment above 9 percent and thousands of Americans protest in the streets against income disparity, said Kevin Zeese, director of Prosperity Agenda, a Baltimore-based advocacy group trying to narrow the divide between rich and poor.
“There’s a gap that’s isolating Washington from the reality of the rest of the country,” Zeese said. “They just get more and more out of touch.”
Total compensation for federal workers, including health care and other benefits, last year averaged $126,369, compared with $122,697 in 2009, according to Bloomberg News calculations of Commerce Department data. There were 170,467 federal employees in the District of Columbia as of June. The Washington area includes the District of Columbia, parts of Northern Virginia, eastern Maryland and eastern West Virginia.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-1 ... alley.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Didn't say if this was for the 1st time ever that DC was the wealthiest metro area.

Not sure how to feel about this.

89Hen wrote:Not sure how to feel about this.

Its really expensive to live there?

89Hen wrote:Not sure how to feel about this.

Try outraged.

Last year Washington also had the most lawyers per capita in the U.S. compared with the 50 states, with one for every 12 city residents, according to figures from the American Bar Association and the Census Bureau. In New York State the figure was one out of every 123 residents, while in California the ratio was one in 243.

Wow. There's your wage gap.

93henfan wrote:

Last year Washington also had the most lawyers per capita in the U.S. compared with the 50 states, with one for every 12 city residents, according to figures from the American Bar Association and the Census Bureau. In New York State the figure was one out of every 123 residents, while in California the ratio was one in 243.

Wow. There's your wage gap.

That may be misleading. Maybe Ivy or dane can chime in, but perhaps they're comparing DC Bar numbers with NY State bar numbers. Two problems there... first, you are comparing a city to a state and I would think urban areas have more lawyers to begin with. Second, I think DC Bar recognizes most other state's bars, but you still have to join. IOW, when Mrs89 went to work for the Fed, she actually took NJ's bar exam to get admitted to the DC Bar. Once in DC, she dropped NJ. So I think a lot of people might have DC Bar membership without even working here. It's like $150 a year to keep.

89Hen wrote:

93henfan wrote:
Wow. There's your wage gap.

That may be misleading. Maybe Ivy or dane can chime in, but perhaps they're comparing DC Bar numbers with NY State bar numbers. Two problems there... first, you are comparing a city to a state and I would think urban areas have more lawyers to begin with. Second, I think DC Bar recognizes most other state's bars, but you still have to join. IOW, when Mrs89 went to work for the Fed, she actually took NJ's bar exam to get admitted to the DC Bar. Once in DC, she dropped NJ. So I think a lot of people might have DC Bar membership without even working here. It's like $150 a year to keep.

Regardless of the bar, if you have that many lawyers in an area, like ten or twenty times as many lawyers per capita of any other place, and then you also see this quote, it's easy to see why there's such a wage gap:

Associate attorneys in the Washington area who have worked between one and eight years had a median salary of $186,250, compared with the national median for their peers of $123,521, according to a survey by the Washington-based National Association for Law Placement.

One twelth of a population making 50% more than its peers elsewhere, and then you take all the federal employees in DC making DC locality pay (24%), it's easy to see why DC gets skewed.

93henfan wrote:Regardless of the bar, if you have that many lawyers in an area, like ten or twenty times as many lawyers per capita of any other place...

That was my point above, I'm not sure it's anywhere near that high. No doubt, we have a lot of attorneys in the area, but we also have a TON of people who sell things to the gov that make a lot of money. IMO that's where the real income is.

89Hen wrote:

93henfan wrote:Regardless of the bar, if you have that many lawyers in an area, like ten or twenty times as many lawyers per capita of any other place...

That was my point above, I'm not sure it's anywhere near that high. No doubt, we have a lot of attorneys in the area, but we also have a TON of people who sell things to the gov that make a lot of money. IMO that's where the real income is.

Yeah, but let's get back to the not-so-veiled intent of BDKJMU with this thread: those damned federal employees!

They should all be laid off. What the hell do we need a government for anyway?

NYC has about 1 lawyer practicing in NYC for every 20 residents. The 123 number is very close to what I've seen for New York State as a whole.

Attorneys practicing in NYC also make up more than half of the entire NY State attorney population. That's counting actual practicing attorneys in NY, not just those admitted.

States do track where you practice, not just where you are admitted.

And yes - you can get admitted to practice in DC by the score you get on certain other states' tests.

This will be intersting to re-visit in say a year or two once the debt crisis cuts are resolved. There are a number of government agencies that will be cutting fat.

Aren't there something like 40,000 lobbyists in D.C.? What's there compensation like?

kalm wrote:Aren't there something like 40,000 lobbyists in D.C.? What's there compensation like?

Depends on who they're lobbying for. $40k to $400k.

Villifying the rich?!? Bunch of commie scum in this thread.

Skjellyfetti wrote:Villifying the rich?!? Bunch of commie scum in this thread.

No, they're villifying lawyers. Big difference.

AZGrizFan wrote:

Skjellyfetti wrote:Villifying the rich?!? Bunch of commie scum in this thread.

No, they're villifying lawyers. Big difference.

What about rich lobbyist/lawyers?

93henfan wrote:What the hell do we need a government for anyway?

I don't think anyone is saying we don't need government. But we are saying that we already have way too much and yet there are those who want even more.

How about defense contractors? Any of those living nearby? How much do they make?

89Hen wrote:

93henfan wrote:
Wow. There's your wage gap.

That may be misleading. Maybe Ivy or dane can chime in, but perhaps they're comparing DC Bar numbers with NY State bar numbers. Two problems there... first, you are comparing a city to a state and I would think urban areas have more lawyers to begin with. Second, I think DC Bar recognizes most other state's bars, but you still have to join. IOW, when Mrs89 went to work for the Fed, she actually took NJ's bar exam to get admitted to the DC Bar. Once in DC, she dropped NJ. So I think a lot of people might have DC Bar membership without even working here. It's like $150 a year to keep.

I saw a study from the NYT online site a couple of months ago that suggested that DC and maybe Wisconsin are the only two jurisdictions with a lawyer shortage. The study compared bar exam passage numbers with the number of job openings per year. DC also scored high in lawyer comp. Delaware had the highest hourly rate oflawyer comp of any state in the country! Not sure what that proves. NY and Ca had the biggest surpluses of lawyers.

Ivytalk wrote:Delaware had the highest hourly rate oflawyer comp of any state in the country! Not sure what that proves.

Sure you do. Look at the big cases handled by the Chancery. Some of the biggest corporations in the world. They ain't paying their lawyers peanuts I don't guess!

Hello...This is really informative post that I had ever read. From long I am searching for the list of the wealthiest politicians and please anyone here can provide me list of wealthiest politicians with names and photos. Thanks.

politicians wealthiest   

I have no doubt federal employment is huge in bringing up the median income for many regions across the nation. DC obviously has a high percentage of federal employees, many states are nearly as high. Some interesting stats.... The high percentage of federal employees in some states skews the median income data:

State--------% Fed. Empl.----Median Inc.-----% Increase in Median Inc. Attributed to Fed. Empl.

Wyoming-------- 22.0---------- 52848------------- 9%
Alaska----------- 20.8---------- 60409------------- 3%
New Mexico---- 19.9---------- 44679------------- 15%
Mississippi------ 18.9---------- 36821------------- 24%
North Dakota--- 16.8---------- 51141------------- 7%
West Virginia--- 16.7---------- 41999------------- 14%
Kansas----------- 16.5---------- 45842------------- 10%
Idaho------------ 16.4---------- 47282------------- 9%
New York------- 16.3---------- 50435------------- 7%
Nebraska------- 16.0---------- 51571------------- 6%

kalm wrote:How about defense contractors? Any of those living nearby? How much do they make?

It is close to the averages mentioned in the article.

biobengal wrote:I have no doubt federal employment is huge in bringing up the median income for many regions across the nation. DC obviously has a high percentage of federal employees, many states are nearly as high. Some interesting stats.... The high percentage of federal employees in some states skews the median income data:

State--------% Fed. Empl.----Median Inc.-----% Increase in Median Inc. Attributed to Fed. Empl.

Wyoming-------- 22.0---------- 52848------------- 9%
Alaska----------- 20.8---------- 60409------------- 3%
New Mexico---- 19.9---------- 44679------------- 15%
Mississippi------ 18.9---------- 36821------------- 24%
North Dakota--- 16.8---------- 51141------------- 7%
West Virginia--- 16.7---------- 41999------------- 14%
Kansas----------- 16.5---------- 45842------------- 10%
Idaho------------ 16.4---------- 47282------------- 9%
New York------- 16.3---------- 50435------------- 7%
Nebraska------- 16.0---------- 51571------------- 6%

Could you provide your source? Federal employees make up less than 1% of the US population. Your graph states that 16.3% of the State of New York (or over 3 million people) are employed by the federal government. There are less than 3 million federal employees in the whole country.

Smells like bullshit.

93henfan wrote:

biobengal wrote:I have no doubt federal employment is huge in bringing up the median income for many regions across the nation. DC obviously has a high percentage of federal employees, many states are nearly as high. Some interesting stats.... The high percentage of federal employees in some states skews the median income data:

State--------% Fed. Empl.----Median Inc.-----% Increase in Median Inc. Attributed to Fed. Empl.

Wyoming-------- 22.0---------- 52848------------- 9%
Alaska----------- 20.8---------- 60409------------- 3%
New Mexico---- 19.9---------- 44679------------- 15%
Mississippi------ 18.9---------- 36821------------- 24%
North Dakota--- 16.8---------- 51141------------- 7%
West Virginia--- 16.7---------- 41999------------- 14%
Kansas----------- 16.5---------- 45842------------- 10%
Idaho------------ 16.4---------- 47282------------- 9%
New York------- 16.3---------- 50435------------- 7%
Nebraska------- 16.0---------- 51571------------- 6%

Could you provide your source? Federal employees make up less than 1% of the US population. Your graph states that 16.3% of the State of New York (or over 3 million people) are employed by the federal government. There are less than 3 million federal employees in the whole country.

Smells like bullshit.

I'd be afraid to link it... my liberal reputation would be ruined.

Actually, that is total public employees... they appear to be including contract workers as well.