U.S. Government Salaries in Houston - why are they so high? (Dallas: lawyers)

[JohnnyAngel]

Federal workers get what is called a locality adjusment to their base rate of pay. This is supposed to be based on the cost of living of the geographic area in which they live and work, or what the private sector pays for an equivalent job in that area.

At any rate, the highest paying locality on the federal pay scale is the San Francisco area, and #2 is the NYC area. Makes sense - everyone knows those places are expensive. But #3 is - Houston? Federal workers in Houston make more than Federal workers in Washington DC, Los Angeles, Boston, and Chicago.

2011 General Schedule (GS) Locality Pay Tables

So what's the deal? Is Houston much more expensive to live in than most people assume (I would have guessed it to be the equivalent of Dallas or Atlanta)? Or are Houstonians in general better paid than workers in almost every other city, but happen to be extremely frugal with their money?

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by JohnnyAngel

Federal workers get what is called a locality adjusment to their base rate of pay. This is supposed to be based on the cost of living of the geographic area in which they live and work, or what the private sector pays for an equivalent job in that area.

At any rate, the highest paying locality on the federal pay scale is the San Francisco area, and #2 is the NYC area. Makes sense - everyone knows those places are expensive. But #3 is - Houston? Federal workers in Houston make more than Federal workers in Washington DC, Los Angeles, Boston, and Chicago.

2011 General Schedule (GS) Locality Pay Tables

So what's the deal? Is Houston much more expensive to live in than most people assume (I would have guessed it to be the equivalent of Dallas or Atlanta)? Or are Houstonians in general better paid than workers in almost every other city, but happen to be extremely frugal with their money?

Houston's IP Lawyers make as much as IP lawyers in NY.

Starting Salaries here are usually 175K a year for IP lawyers

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by HtownLove

Houston's IP Lawyers make as much as IP lawyers in NY.

Starting Salaries here are usually 175K a year for IP lawyers

A dollar in Houston obviously goes much further than a dollar in NYC. So the question is why is low-tax, low COL Houston equivalent in pay with high-tax, high COL New York City?

[jfre81]

Houston is not as low tax/COL as it's made out to be, but it should not be third behind NYC and San Francisco.

[jimmyev]

Originally Posted by JohnnyAngel

Federal workers get what is called a locality adjusment to their base rate of pay. This is supposed to be based on the cost of living of the geographic area in which they live and work, or what the private sector pays for an equivalent job in that area.

Because it doesn't have anything to do with cost-of-living; locality pay is the difference between the average private sector wages in the area and the average federal wage.

Houston has a lot of high-paid private sector employees (corporate executives, engineers, scientists, doctors, etc). It doesn't have a lot of high-level federal workers - with the exception of NASA, those are mostly in Dallas. Ergo there is a large difference between the average wage of a private sector employee and the average wage of a federal employee in Houston. And that is what determines locality pay.