A late April Washington Post item answers the question of why the UNESCO education attaché costs $632,000:
That includes the following: one GS-15 salary, plus benefits; one Paris apartment, plus parking; travel and moving expenses; education costs for children of up to $60,000; and $170,000 for International Cooperative Administrative Support Services, an expenses-sharing mechanism used by agencies for overseas staff.
I think there’s probably something to be said for the idea of a comprehensive review of housing allowance policies. In many cases, I think we pay senior civil servants too little. The government needs to be able to recruit top notch scientists, lawyers, economists, etc. so ought to be able to pay people something vaguely competitive with the private sector. At the same time, it seems to me that you could probably recruit well-qualified people for a job like this one even without the free Paris apartment.
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