Based on a new study from the Congressional Research Service (CRS), Chris Gonsalves at NewsMax reports in “What Debt Crisis? Fed Workers Making More Than Governors” that:

At a time when many American workers are struggling to make ends meet and government debt is threatening to undermine economic recovery, thousands of federal employees are raking in bigger salaries than the governors of the states where they live, a new report reveals.

In fact, federal public employees now make twice the salaries of their private sector counterparts—annual earnings that top $123,000. The median US household income, by comparison, is $52,000 annually.

The report from the non-partisan Congressional Research Service shows that more than 77,000 federal workers—in jobs ranging from medicine and air traffic control to public relations, computer programming, and even interior decorating—earned more in 2009 than their state’s chief executive.

“Across America, governors are being asked to do more with less, often at lower pay than federal employees in their states. The pay gap between governors and federal employees should prompt Congress to take a closer look at federal salaries,” said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who requested the CRS report. “With our debt and deficits spiraling out of control, now is the time to ask agencies—not just governors—to do more with less.”

Coburn said he asked for the comparison to governors’ salaries, because he felt state chief executive pay is indicative of top-tier salaries—both public and private—in each state. Coburn has been adamant that the government needs to pay federal workers less while the nation attempts to solve its growing deficit.

The research analyzed the salaries of more than 2.1 million federal employees. The CRS report did not list specific federal salaries nor did it connect states with specific public-sector job titles. The CRS report shows Colorado atop its list with 10,875 federal workers earning more than Gov. Bill Ritter’s salary of $90,000. Maryland was second with 7,283 civil servants topping Gov. Martin O’Malley’s $150,000 annual haul. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Vermont had just 100 federal employees beating out former Gov. Jim Douglas, who pocketed $142,548 that year.

Of the 77,057 highly paid federal workers singled out in the report, 18,351 were doctors. Air traffic controllers accounted for 5,170 of the total, the second-highest amount. Those two professions accounted for 31 percent of government workers outgrossing their governors. . . .

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