Federal employees show a growing satisfaction with their pay according to the 2024 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) results.
The governmentwide pay satisfaction score was 59% in 2024. This is up from 57% in 2023 and 56% in 2022.
Although it is trending higher, it is still well below 2020 when it was at 67%. That was the peak in pay satisfaction since 2018. The table below shows the progression over the last seven years.
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Satisfaction (average of the below four categories) | 64 | 65 | 69 | 64 | 62 | 64 | 65 |
| Job Satisfaction | 68 | 69 | 72 | 67 | 66 | 68 | 69 |
| Pay Satisfaction | 63 | 63 | 67 | 61 | 56 | 57 | 59 |
| Organization Satisfaction | 60 | 61 | 66 | 61 | 60 | 62 | 64 |
| Recommend Organization | 66 | 67 | 71 | 67 | 65 | 67 | 69 |
Pay satisfaction was highest among small and medium-sized agencies as noted by the pay satisfaction scores broken down by agency size:
| Agency Size | Pay Satisfaction |
| Very Small | 62 |
| Small | 65 |
| Medium | 65 |
| Large | 59 |
| Very Large | 59 |
Inflation and FEVS Pay Satisfaction Scores
Regarding the decline in pay satisfaction in 2022, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said at that time, “…results could reflect changes in the context when living costs rose without a corresponding increase in pay for most employees.”
If you look at the pay satisfaction scores compared with inflation, it does indeed appear that inflation is the probable factor that caused the decline in pay satisfaction scores that began in 2021. Inflation started rising quickly that year, and it really took off in 2022 which was the year with the lowest pay satisfaction score reported by federal employees since 2018.
When the inflation rate started declining in 2023, the pay satisfaction scores reversed course as well, although they are still down from their peak in 2020 during this seven-year period.
The table below shows the FEVS pay satisfaction scores (percent positive), average inflation rates, and average annual federal pay raises from 2018 to 2024. The inflation rate quadrupled from 2021 to 2022, and it doubled again the next year, so it increased almost sevenfold in just two years. Note that the 2024 inflation rate is the average of January–September.
When inflation rises, our money does not purchase as much as it used to be able to since everything costs more. Although the federal pay raise is not technically based on inflation, it often leaves federal employees (and FedSmith readers) frustrated that they are not getting larger pay raises that better keep pace with inflation, so it stands to reason this gets reflected in the FEVS pay satisfaction scores.
| Year | Pay Satisfaction | Inflation | Raise |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 63 | 2.4 | 1.9 |
| 2019 | 63 | 1.8 | 1.9 |
| 2020 | 67 | 1.2 | 3.1 |
| 2021 | 61 | 4.7 | 1.0 |
| 2022 | 56 | 8.0 | 2.7 |
| 2023 | 57 | 4.1 | 4.6 |
| 2024 | 59 | 3.0* | 5.2 |
According to OPM, the average federal employee salary is $106,382 as of March 2024, and it is $144,350 in Washington, DC. Federal employees are likely to get a 2% pay raise in 2025. However, they also will be paying 13.5% more on average for health insurance premiums next year.
What the 2025 inflation rate will be is anyone’s guess, however, prices for everything from insurance to food are still elevated from the increases from the last three years. There also will be a different presidential administration heading to Washington next year after the upcoming election. It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out in the 2025 FEVS pay satisfaction scores.
