Readers' Comments
Total Comments: 44
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Debating "Average" Federal Salary Figures
Total Comments: 44
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| Close | Change | YTD | |
| G | $12.6432 | +0.0012 | +2.96% |
| F | $11.9243 | -0.1231 | -0.05% |
| C | $10.4442 | -0.8603 | -36.93% |
| S | $12.4303 | -0.9943 | -37.19% |
| I | $14.2858 | -0.7200 | -42.30% |
| Close | Change | YTD | |
| L 2040 | $12.3436 | -0.7348 | -32.33% |
| L 2030 | $12.4331 | -0.6468 | -28.59% |
| L 2020 | $12.6288 | -0.5442 | -24.15% |
| L 2010 | $13.5738 | -0.2956 | -12.20% |
| L Income | $12.5694 | -0.1823 | -6.69% |
October 10, 2008
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Average Salary
DOI
Tue Aug 29, 2006 9:28 AM
Post Reply
The "average" salaries are off because the grades in DC are SOOO much higher than the rest of the country.
I went to my HR office in the DC area. The HR specialists are all FPL GS-13's doing what I did for a GS-7 in another state.
Sure cost of living is higher there - THATS WHAT LOCALITY PAYMENTS ARE FOR. The grades should not be elevated just because of the location. Employees doing the same job should be paid the same wages, but it doesn't work that way in the DC area. A GS-5 in my state would be a GS-12 or 13 in the DC area. That's why the figures are so off from the rest of the country. Take out DC salaries, then give us the average federal wage. I'm sure it would come WAY down.
Re: Average Salary
DOD in Mississippi
Tue Aug 29, 2006 11:31 AM
Re: Average Salary
Dod
Tue Aug 29, 2006 2:45 PM
Re: Average Salary
EPA
Wed Aug 30, 2006 8:24 AM
Average and Median Pay
Department of Treausury
Tue Aug 29, 2006 9:36 AM
Post Reply
It would be far more meaningful to compare the pay of equivalent positions in the public and private sector with the same amount of years in service. I may make more than the average private sector employee but that is meaningless unless I know what the skills level and position are, and, too,
the years of employment for the same employer which is often an indicator of increased pay both in the private and public sector. Absent that, your article reinforces the notion that Federal givernment employees are overpaid. When I worked in the private sector, I had far more benefits and was paid more for equivalent work. As an unskilled factory worker at the time, I tooka $5000.00 pay cut to begin employment in a technically-skilled position with the Federal government (fortunately I had a college degree). In addition, the state in which I lived would regulary entice people from my agency to the equivalent state agaency because the state paid better and provided more benefits.
Average pay for federal employees
DoD/USAF
Tue Aug 29, 2006 9:54 AM
Post Reply
I one disagreement with your comments -- everyone thinks that just because federal employees (or, anyone for the matter) lives in a large metro area -- they have a high cost of living. Well, try living in a small/medium town in the Midwest (South Dakota). The town I live in has some of the highest property taxes in the country. But, we are still at the low end of the salary spectrum. So, let's be fair and re-think the 'average' salary for federal workers.
'Average' Pay Debate
DoD
Tue Aug 29, 2006 9:57 AM
Post Reply
I've never really questioned the OPM figures for average federal pay and benefits. What I'm still not clear on, and very suspicious of, are the BLS figures for the average private sector pay and benefits used in the comparisons. Do the private sector figures include the exorbitiant pay and benefits of such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, George Soros, the recently retired CEO of Exon-Mobile, et al, or are they excluded because there is no comparable such person in the public sector? Also do the private sector averages include the millions of minimum pay and even lower pay jobs with no benefits, in the private sector? If so, this would create a NOT apples to apples comparison since there are no such jobs in the public sector. This would also support a seeming agenda that public sector employee wages and benefits far exceed those of private sector employees.
Federal Salaries
DOE
Tue Aug 29, 2006 9:58 AM
Post Reply
The figure may still be skewed. Since we now contract out most of our entry level positions, it is hard to compare the Feds to all others.
Average salaries
IRS
Tue Aug 29, 2006 10:09 AM
Post Reply
The comparasion of average salaries of federal workers versus US workers is not a valid comparasion. The real comparasion should be job series or position classification of federal workers versus the private sector workers of the same classification. In other words compare an investigator at HUD with an investigator in the private sector not with a cook at MacDonalds. Compare an IRS agent with an accountant in private. Apples vs apples, not oranges and apples.
fed salaries
DOL
Tue Aug 29, 2006 10:15 AM
Post Reply
I have worked most of my federal career in the field but I have also spent 18 months in the DC area. I agree with the DOI guy about elevated grades in DC, and that locality payments are to help adjust the base salary for the area lived in....but DC is DC and that can not be changed.
When the average salary for private sector workers is calculated do they use the CEO pay? So why include it in the federal average pay--SES is basically the equivalent of a CEO but a federal employee.
What they should do is NOT include SES in the calculation. Their pay starts at 6 figures and that is the true number that skews the pay.
In the private sector how many people are CEO's or managers at that level that receive the 6 figure incomes. Not many. Only use the salaries from GS-1 to GS-15....the worker bees and then we will probably see a true figure...one that is more reasonable and acceptable.