On the eve of Tax Day, let's see what we pay for

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Tax freedom day comes about a week after Monday's tax deadline. That means that for the average American they spend almost the first four months of the year to pay for the government.

That's about a third of our income.

That's right. There's something wrong with this picture.

But to pour salt on the wound, federal workers make much higher salaries than private sector workers and enjoy much more generous benefits than private sector workers who fund their livelihood.

For instance, I'll bet you didn't know that in 2014 federal civilian workers had an average wage of $84,153, according the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. By comparison, the average wage for the nation's 111 million private-sector workers was $56,350.

And when it comes to benefits it gets even worse, for us private sector guys, that is. That's because in 2014 federal workers enjoyed average annual benefits of $35,781, which compared to average benefits in the private sector of just $10,896.

When I was growing up my parents (Dad was a salesman, Mom a housewife) would always reflect that government workers don't get paid that much but they have good benefits.

Were that it were true today. But it isn't.

While private sector salaries have stagnated in the past decade, government workers' salaries continue to rise steadily upward.

When benefits such as health care and pensions are included, the federal compensation advantage over private workers is startling, according to the BEA data. In 2014 total federal compensation averaged $119,934, or 78 percent more than the private-sector average of $67,246.

Rising federal compensation stems from legislated increases in general pay, increases in locality pay, expansions in benefits, and growth in the number of high-paid jobs as bureaucracies become more top-heavy. Compensation growth is also fueled by routine adjustments that move federal workers into higher salary brackets regardless of performance, and by federal jobs that are redefined upward into higher pay ranges.

A 2012 Congressional Budget Office study concluded, "On average for workers at all levels of education, the cost of hourly benefits was 48 percent higher for federal civilian employees than for private-sector employees with certain similar observable characteristics."

So is it any wonder that states with large numbers of government workers, government capital, government contractors and government interests stay blue.

The retirement gap is particularly onerous if you're not in the club. Federal employees have access to retirement benefits through the Civil Service Retirement System or the Federal Employee Retirement System. Under both plans, retired employees receive an annuity, which is complemented by Social Security benefits and participation in the Thrift Savings Plan that offers 401(k)-type investment options. So the private sector gets to fund their bloated salaries AND their bloated pension.

And there's a darn good chance there all going to get to those pensions.

Talk about job security on steroids. About a year ago CBS This Morning exposed the difficulty of firing derelict government employees, even ones who watch porn on the job.

A journalist also highlighted a bullying, harassing individual who threatened coworkers, but hasn't been terminated, observing, "In the private sector, if you're caught viewing porn on company time or intimidating a co-worker, you'd probably be fired immediately."

The reporter noted this isn't the case with the federal government, adding, "At the Environmental Protection Agency, red tape is preventing the removal of a top-level employee accused of viewing porn two to six hour as day while at work since 2010" adding, "Even though investigators found 7,000 pornographic files on his computer and even caught him watching porn, he remains on the payroll."

In fact, Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that the rate of "layoffs and discharges" in the federal workforce is just one-quarter of the rate in the private sector.

Lastly let's look at the government workers' oft-said mantra that they're so vastly underpaid, that they could make a lot more in the private sector, but they "choose to serve."

Besides making me want to puke, it's just not true. While some of the highest paid government workers like lawyers and such might do better in the private sector, their cushy government position gives them security and benefits that more than compensate.

And for the less skilled, less educated government worker, the disparity between them and their private sector counterpart if staggering. A 2010 study by the Heritage Foundation found that federal pay was 22 percent higher, on average, than private-sector pay for comparable workers, while a 2011 American Enterprise Institute study found that federal pay was 14 percent higher. And don't forget that doesn't include the more-than-three-time more generous benefits packages they enjoy.

And to illustrate how bloated and overstaffed the government is I'll just tell a joke told by President Ronald Reagan.

Reagan was talking about bloated government and remembered the story of a visitor going through the offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and seeing a worker crying at his desk.

"What's wrong with him," the visitor asks.

"Oh," the tour guide says. "His Indian died."

Information from downsizinggovernment.org was used in this report.