Per Diem

I was looking around on the web, trying to figure out how many people in the US are working, and what kind of jobs they have. Found out that about half the people in the US are working (154 million) and the government is the biggest employer at 22 million. I am assuming that is all levels of government, but I don't know.

Then I stumbled over a spreadsheet of the Per Diem rates for Federal Employees. Per Diem (per day) is what you get for food and lodging when you have to stay overnight away from home. The base rate is $116 per day: $70 for a room and $46 for food and incidentals. But then there is a list of 700 specific locations that have a higher allowance. When you get up to place number 300 the rate is up to $150 per day for places like Oklahoma City, Sturgis, South Dakota & Olympia Washington.

Get up to place number 600 and you are paying $200 a night for room & board in Palm Springs, California or Aspen, Colorado. Another 60 places down the list and you are up $250 for Chicago, Illinois or Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Washington D.C. runs $300, and the top four places on the list (from $350 to $411) belong to NYC.

I imported the spreadsheet into Google. You can see it here without having to download it.