Portrait of a government worker

If you work for the government, you either drive a Bentley and spend your weekends in the Hamptons–or you work a weekend job just to scrap together enough pennies to make your rent payment, depending on whether a conservative or liberal is telling the story.

Extreme depictions are always fun, but looking at the numbers can balance perspectives.

USA Today published a report in December, and another in March, showing that federal workers earn more than private-sector workers for the same job, and more federal workers than ever before are earning six-figure salaries.

But the narrative’s a bit different when you get down to the state level, depending on where you’re looking. After several years of steady growth, average pay for most Virginia state workers has leveled off over the last three years as the state has struggled with dipping revenues.

Continue reading this piece by Paige Winfield Cunningham on Old Dominion Watchdog here.

Paige Winfield Cunningham is an investigative reporter and managing editor at Old Dominion Watchdog . The Local Blog Network is a group of bloggers from around the D.C. region who have agreed to make regular contributions to All Opinions Are Local.