Stimulus is working, in DC

There is good news for workers who still have jobs. A WorldatWork survey of more than 1,000 U.S. companies found that 77 percent of the work force can expect to receive base pay raises this year.

And Washington is among the four metro areas with the largest projected salary budget increases of 3.1 percent. The other three are: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and San Francisco.

The results in the "WorldatWork Special Update: 2008-09 Salary Budget Survey" were determined from interviews in early December, after credit markets tightened and after the presidential election in order to gather the latest outlook for compensation plans for 2009.

A survey conducted in April 2008 found salary budget increases of 3.9 percent in the Washington area (also the top of the range) along with Boston, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Diego and San Francisco.

That's from the Washington Business Journal. It is already the case that the 3 richest counties and 9 of the 20 richest counties are suburbs of DC. Let's hear it for targeted stimulus! Maybe the idea is a kind of trickle-down economics. We get rich in DC, then we buy stuff from the rest of you poor bastards. I just got back from Haiti, but that's a long way to go for poverty tourism. Soon I'll be able to do it in my own country! First up is Seattle.