Members of Congress hope to unearth the truth about federal employees' salaries Wednesday, when a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee holds a hearing on how government compensation measures up to the private sector.

Federal pay has been a contentious issue for months, with some conservatives demanding a salary freeze for federal workers whom they consider overpaid.

The Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service and Labor Policy will hear testimony from both sides Wednesday. Subcommittee Chairman Dennis Ross (R-Fla.) chose the title of the hearing -- "Are Federal Workers Underpaid?" -- to "cut against the grain a little bit because people aren't really sure," said Ross' chief of staff, Fred Piccolo.

Some reports place government salaries as much as 30 percent lower than their private-sector counterparts; others depict federal workers as grossly overpaid.

"That kind of fight has been playing out in media, and we just want to sit everybody in the same room and ask each side where they're getting their numbers, how they're comparing federal employees to the private sector," Piccolo said. "Are they comparing apples to apples, apples to bananas or apples to steaks?"

Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry will be the first witness to testify, followed by a second panel that includes the Heritage Foundation's senior policy analyst in labor economics James Sherk, American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Andrew Biggs, Partnership for Public Service director Max Stier and National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley.

Piccolo said the purpose of the "fact-finding" hearing is to ask both sides where they are getting their numbers and find out whether they are making any faulty assumptions. The office of the subcommittee's ranking member, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), did not return a request for comment by publication time.

"If the conclusion is that federal workers are overpaid, that's something that we can highlight in a report, and if they are underpaid, then we can set the record straight," Piccolo said.

Schedule: The Federal Workforce hearing is Wednesday, March 9, at 1:30 p.m. in 2154 Rayburn.

Witnesses: Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry; the Heritage Foundation's senior policy analyst in labor economics James Sherk; American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Andrew Biggs; Partnership for Public Service director Max Stier; and National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley.