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America’s bloodiest war, the Civil War, which ended in the Spring of 1865 with a combined death toll of between 752,000 and 861,000, and President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, brought an end to slavery in the U.S.
But it wasn’t until 19 June 1865 that the last slaves, in Galveston, Texas, finally got word of the war’s end and their freedom. That date has been commemorated since as “Juneteenth” by Black Americans, and had already been recognized as a holiday by every state except South Dakota, although not as a paid holiday for state workers.
In case you’re wondering about some of the less-publicized aspects of this latest federal holiday, signed into law by Pres. Biden on 17 June, Forbes, in a news release that same day, puts it in financial perspective.
Juneteenth brings to 11 the number of federal holidays, adding one more paid day off annually for the 2.1 million civilian federal employees and 500,000 postal service workers, whose annual benefits also include, on average, 13 sick days and 20 vacation days; that makes 44 annual paid days off—almost nine weeks—for the average federal employee.
To the $22.6 billion that taxpayers pony up for all that time off, the new holiday will add about $818 million, and that’s not even including the postal service or the military.
And it will likely not be the last federal holiday. The U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year passed H.R. 1, the “For the People Act,” one provision of which will make Election Day yet another paid federal holiday every two years; if it becomes law, it will cost $4 billion over the next 10 years.
That’s hardly the last word in the government’s largesse toward its employees. As of March, under the American Rescue Plan, federal employees with children out of school are eligible to receive up to $21,000 ($1400 per week for 15 weeks) to stay home. And one million federal bureaucrats were paid $1.1 billion in performance bonuses last year. The average yearly salary in 78 of the largest federal agencies is over $100,000.
Further information may be obtained via the Office of Personnel Management fact sheets and the Government Accountability Office.
TRENDPOST: We note this article to illustrate how government employees – city, state and federal – in a country near you are heavily rewarded with pensions, benefits and holidays while the plantation workers of Slavelandia who are heavily taxed are given peanuts in terms of social security, health care and other financial/social benefits.