Re: Salary

So are you saying or implying that OPM is lying with its statistics?

Re: Salary

Where is your evidence, Program Analyst?

Re: Salary

I assume they are true. Wonder what the spread is outside of Washington DC.

Re: Salary

The problem is not that OPM lied about the statistics it supplied, the problem is that the assume or represt in the original article that the majority of civil service workers fall under GS or "an equivilent plan," i.e white collar workers (plans like NSPS and Acq Demo). I'm sure these statistics do not cover a very large portion of the government work force, that of the Wage Grade (WG) persuasion, i.e. blue collar or union employees.

Re: Salary

Whether they are true or untrue, they do not reflect a comparison of the same professions in the same locality. Therefore, no one can tell whether they mean anything or not. The article is worthless.

Re: Small sample

I believed our president make less than the governor of the HK SARS.
Previous private sector myself, the salary in the private sector maybe small, but what they are not counting is the bonus and the stock options.
I can tell you, in a good year, these stock options are pretty sweet.

Re: comparison by specialty or job type pay

EXACTLY!

We can carp all day, but until a true comparison is done, all our conjecture (which I find very interesting) isn't worth any more than the Cato report or the stats thier opinion is based on.

Re: Federal employee pay

Your attitude is typical of the management VA workers, don't trip over your mountain of self pride. Education does not mean you can actually do the job, it just means you "attended" a school.

For you information, an intern after their three program can be a GS-12. Most IT workers are GS-11/13.

By the way I am a GS-12 step 6 after 26 years, I started as a WG-3 laborer (Blue Collar - 20 years) and worked my way up. I went to school a night over many years, got a BA, and a thesis short of a Master's. Education is good, but common sense is better.

Re: Federal employee pay

You are so arrogant. I can appreciate your investment into your career, but I'm also a GS-12 step 6, HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA ONLY! So get off your high horse - education has it's value no doubt - unfortunately, I also know many talented, intelligent people who do not have an advance degree - I also have an IQ of 137 - that didn't come from any college - but I will accredit it to a great set of PUBLIC SCHOOL teachers who taught me to read - which exposed to worlds beyond my own and also my grandmother who gave me a book with every pair of socks she bought me!

Re: Federal employee pay

I know someone in my department make GS14 with only a high school deploma.
Therefore, that person is right, you don't need any professional degree or certificate.
Now, even if you have a professional degree, if no one regonize your ability, that degree is just a nice piece of paper on your wall.

Re: Federal employee pay

Heh, I don't have a degree; got caught in a BRAC that forced me out of the series in which I was grandfathered so as not to need a degree to promote; unable for very real reasons not to go back just now for the 2 years I need; am TRAINING the college degreed who need to know how to actually DO the job; and being told that I am as good as anyone in that field but am stuck as an office flunky.

Too many clicked the boxes online or moved a tassel to the other side and never learned another thing.

I don't doubt that the most senior people need the degrees. I know the engineers and scientists really required education credentials. I am amused that they bring in young 20 something with a degree and then spend the next 2 - 3 years sending them to classes so they can learn to do their jobs. I could take the same gov classes, (have snuck into some of them,) and with the same investment do the same or better level of work.

Creeping credentialism erodes the value of degrees.

Re: Federal employee pay

To the Licensed Clinical Social Worker from the VA - I can't believe that with "a Masters Degree, and a license, and 23 years of working for the government" you still managed to misspell "expererince" and ask that many questions with no question marks. I'm feeling a bit better about not having a bachelor's degree, being a lowly GS-11, Step 9, and only having 33 years as a Federal employee. I know - it was the editor.

Re: Federal employee pay

I have a masters degree and 20 years professional experience in my field, but still at a GS-9! So not everyone is lucky enough to be a GS-12 step 6!

Re: Federal employee pay

Education is only a foundation for experience. It is not experience.

A masters degree in social work is not worth squat in accounting or IT etc etc.

While most people with masters degrees are smart, is there anyone who has not met one who is a moron?

All other factors being equal, I would definitely choose the person with the greater degree over the lesser.

All other factors not being equal, I will choose the person with the best experience. The idiom "A bird in the hand..." applies.

I would love to ask if we can get over the "I have a degree" mentality, but being that it is a generally accepted, if inaccurate, method of determining employee value and pay, I fear I must get over it myself.

Re: Federal employee pay

I have a bachelor's degree, master's degree and a JD. To deny education means something, or say education doesn't mean anything sounds more like jealousy than anything... and a 137 IQ? Ha. Studies have shown what an IQ means. Talk about bragging.

Oh yeah, for the record, I am a five year employee, GS-12 Step 4.

Re: Federal employee pay

I've got an IQ of 170 and graduated from HillTop University in Tennessee. How do I get one of them there public servant jobs so that I can read the internet and send messages during my breaks.

Re: Federal employee pay

These comments are exactly what is wrong with our pay system today. I work for the private sector most of my career and just recently entered the Government at a GS-13 taking a pay-cut. Government employees, as a whole, believe that time in service plays an important role in pay parity. All Government agencies should be on a pay for performance scale (NSPS) just like our private sector counterparts. That way, all of you overpaid, underworked Gov't employees with 25 yrs. experience of sitting on you hands would really have someting to whine about.

Re: Federal employee pay

To the Department of Veterans Affairs social worker. I am wondering where you received your on-line masters degree. You don't know how to spell care and other words and don't use correct punctuation at the end of questions. That is why I don't use the VA Health Care System.

Re: Pay Parity

PROGRAM ANALYST===
"oh, good, we got us a person who brown-noses and "strokes' management---let's CREATE a Prog Analyst position ---mimumum GS9, target 11, and promote this person into it." But we have to make it LOOK like it was competative!!!!!!!
Meanwhile those of us who are BUSY working (as opposed to that ever-present chatting up the mgmt) can sit as GS 6s,7s and 8s FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our branch of the VA is RAMPANT with this kind of action!!

Re: Pay Parity

Well said "ANOTHER FED", it's not what you know, it's who you know.