Federal pay gap widens

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The gap between the salaries of federal workers and private workers has now widened to 35.4%

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This does not include pension benefits or paid time off, just pay.

Federal workers make good money along with their ironclad job security and amazing benefits. The article says at the end that 'lower-tiered' federal workers make significantly more than their private-sector counterparts while the 'higher-tier' workers are underpaid in comparison. So a laborer or maintenance man makes more money while some professional makes less.

The federal government usually contracts-out the laborers and janitors. They don't get the good pay or benefits of the federal employee. The agency that offers the absolute best pay and benefits is the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Postal employees pay less for their health insurance than other federal employees do.

Particularly since the George Bush years, the federal government has been outsourcing a lot of work to contractors, and trying to reduce the number of people on the government payroll. That might have slowed under Obama--I don't know, but I don't think that they are hiring much any more.

Few private sector employers have any sort of pension to look forward to any more. That is more a function of the private sector getting worse than the public sector getting better.

Some professions, like economists, have very few options in the private sector, but lots in the government.



Secretaries who work for the government do tend to do better than secretaries in the private sector.

At the upper echelons: of course the big shots would be making off like bandits if they could find similar positions in the private sector. In the government, there is some upper limit, and no-one is going to get paid more than the president.

For the professionals, is it more of a trade-off between the benefits and security versus possibly higher pay elsewhere. Do you want a little higher pay, or do you want 5 weeks of vacation per year, plus an eventual pension? A lot of Americans seem to value money above all else, and to have little interest in a future pension.

I got my government gig under the Obama administration and there's plenty of hiring going on. We are a self-sufficient agency, however, and make most of our money price gouging immigrants on application fees. We weren't even affected by the shutdown.

It's slowed down most places but I really don't think it's Obama's fault. Unlike Obama, George Bush never had a congress willing to hold a gun to the head of the entire country and world economy every year simply because they don't like him.

Where I work at in the federal government, pay is about 140-170k /year with some overtime and/or bonuses, you can get a HSA (health savings account is available) and flex spending account is available, a pension, work from home on a computer, work when you want.

The job is very easy because the government sets a low work threshold. As an AS person who became a knowledge expert in the area of computer engineering, I dominate in this job because I know so much. So, people like me can realistically do the job in 1-2 days per week, and "coast" the other days.

I would really like to see a 35.4% pay raise.

Last edited by LoveNotHate on 16 Jan 2014, 4:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.

That must be nice. My pay is almost 60K, which (according to the BLS) puts me well below the bottom 10% line for my job. We are not authorized overtime, ever, under any circumstances. Tele-work is not authorized (despite the fact that 80-90% of my job could be done from home).

The pension is the only thing that really keeps me here. My military time counts toward retirement, so that's a huge incentive. Granted, you have to "buy back" your military time from the government for it to count, though.

Yes ... I remember seeing people right out of college making 100k/yr, and spending their day chatting with their buddies at work.

We also get the 5% match to the TSP (401k) which is like 5-6 k more per year.
4 weeks vacation/2weeks sick time/2 weeks of federal holidays
and the ability to relocate to a state with no state tax

and despite all these awesome compensations .. people want more and quit for better opportunities ...

The compensations are great, but in most positions, there is very limited upward mobility. All of the limitations for advancement in the GS wage system make it very difficult for most employees to get higher level jobs. I am at the maximum grade at GS-11. The next higher up position that I would end up qualifying for outside the governemnt is classified as a GS-13/14 in the federal system. That means that I am trapped in my current job permanently (unless I switch to a different field), since you need 1 year at the next lower paygrade (GS-12) to qualify. No exceptions to this are made for additional education, training, experience, or excellent performance. I have been seriously considering leaving, as I would have much better career opportunities outside.

The ability to relocate is also quite limited. Even if your position is available elsewhere, the job still has to be posted on usajobs.gov, and you are still going to have to compete against all other applicants. Unless it is one of the very few positions that are in high demand within the federal government, you are probably stuck exactly where you are.

The people who do the best are those who would be making minimum wage in the private sector, as federal employees are paid what is considered a living wage at a minimum. Once you get to the low-level management level, you start to see a bigger difference, and the higher you go, the worse it gets (with a few exceptions). I'm not sure where you work, but most MDs and PhDs working here don't clear 200K, not even the specialists. And the executive staff gets squat compared with the outside.

Another thing that worries me is the current trend of using federal employee pay, retirement, and benefits as casulaties in the budget battles. A 1% cost of living pay raise for federal workers comes this year for the first time since 2010. But there are still 200,000 federal employees that are exempted from this raise, and I am one of them. Meanwhile, my rent has more than doubled, my power and gas bills have shot up (even though they are frakking the crap out of this area, just sending the gas to states where there are better tax incentives and higher prices), tuition has sky-rocketed, and I can no longer afford to buy milk, meat, or eggs on a regular basis. Yeah, TSP matching and a pension plan are great, but they do me no good in the present.

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I got the 1% raise. I didn't know that some were exempt.

The agency I work at does not have a quota on how many people can be in GS grades, so it takes about 6-8 years of successive promotions, passing supervisory reviews, passing a written test, and anyone in my occupation category can be a gs-14. There is a quota on gs-15 based on available openings, however, it seems like a hardworking, exemplary record employee can easily make gs-15. I have seen one person make gs-15 in six years starting as a new employee right out of college.

Our max pay is about 180k/year for non-executive positions (which includes GS15 managers that have PHD , MS degrees). Executive positions pay up to like 240k/yr I believe), and then above them is presidential appointees which make I think 280k/year.

It is hard to earn the max pay, because one would have to do a lot of extra work to qualify for the bonuses, and it is a lot easier to slack off.

We are underpaid if you look at a comparable private sector worker and assume we work as hard as them However, one factor that influences the "overpaid" assessment is the very low unemployment and high paying jobs located around DC. I have heard of federal employees leaving federal employment with their security clearance active for jobs paying 300,000/year, because the security clearance can be especially valuable there.

It does not work that way for most positions. Most positions have a max GS (mine is GS-11 max). Then, what would be considered the next promotion outside of federal service is a completely separate position, with it's own GS start (GS-13) and max (GS-15). Which means I will never be eligible to move to the new position. You and your co-workers are some of the lucky ones.



My department is no longer eligible for any bonuses. Budget cuts and re-organization costs have effectively stopped them for the majority of our facility. Bonuses come from the individual budgets, so if your agencey/department is expanding without increased funding, has reduced funding, or is burdened with additional costs, you probably won't get them no matter how hard you work.



I don't know if you work as hard as others in your field, but I know that I work harder and more. Our department has a total of 2 people, compared with the other 2 major private sector "competitors" in the area, who have 10X more people in the same department. I suppose in the DC area things are likely to be much better as a federal employee, since there are a whole host of exceptions and incentives that apply to that specific region (not to mention the way that locality adjustments are made in budgets based on the DC geographic region). Our facility has reduced the number of job positions, and is not replacing many people as they retire/leave government service, leaving less people to do more work. Our research wing is a ghost town. Our housekeeping staff is now overworked, as no one has been replaced in the last 3 years (although they aren't going anywhere even if they have to work harder, as they would get paid a pittance anywhere else). Even our nursing staff has been reduced, despite adding several new services and an increased patient load. The only department adding jobs here is our HR department (the ones deciding how to chop up the payroll budget. Go figure).

Last night I looked up a salary survey from one of the professional societies I belong to. I make almost 6K less per year than the lowest salary reported (sample size=278). Maybe it is time to start job hunting again. I dread jumping into that whole nightmare again.

One thing to bear in mind: this study was completed by federal employees, who have a vested interest in promoting the story line that they are underpaid.

I may not know all that you go through on a daily basis or how good/bad your cost of living is in your area, but most people I know would kill just to have a shot at $60K/year with benefits.

Getting $30K/year is near impossible for most.

I also have 4 college degrees and 3 professional certifications. To keep my current job (after it was redefined to include the job responsibilities of a recently eliminated higher level position), I am required to be working towards (and obtain) a more specific MS, plus work towards another specific certification. I have more education and technical certification than the vast majority of executive management anywhere in this country, just not the "right" ones.

My student loan payments are more than twice my rent payment (which has doubled since 2010), even after using every penny of the GI Bill and working for my entire college career.

DANG! Did you CHOOSE to get those 4 degrees or did your job force you to do it?

I've set an emphatic NO to further college education as my current credentials actually are keeping me from getting a decent job (overqualified), and frankly, if the job isn't significantly bumping up my pay, there is no way I could justify the cost of pursuing the degree on my own dime.

Yes, you can take your years wherever you move in the government.

Are any of your degrees in a scientific, medical, engineering field ? My agency hires for those degrees.

Have you done the pension calculation ? At 60k the pension is rather small.

( Average( High 3 salary)) * (factor of 1.1% or higher for law enforcement) * years in service )

(60,000 * .011 * 30 years = $19,800/ year for your pension