Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Also add to the mix that for many federal jobs there is no real private sector equivalent (an example would be an analyst for the Office of Naval Intelligence).
Straight line job for job comparison (lawyer to lawyer pay as an example) the private sector generally pays more, in many cases much more.
Also, for a lot of government jobs a degree, or an advanced degree, is a requirement which is not true for the private sector. As someone mentioned a skew happens because of the minimum wage jobs in the private sector.
US government pay scale 2020. https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-over...eral-schedule/
The rate for different areas are included in the part for Locality Pay.
I worked for the IRS in Austin Texas. The campus had about 5k employees. 4/5ths of them are seasonal. At least 75% were GS 6 or below. The season could be anywhere from 3-11 months a year.
The government paid 70% of the health insurance cost.
My husband was active duty military, was civil service for a while, then went with a private firm with very limited government business, it represents less than 7% of their revenue. Within two years he was making over four times as much as he made working for the government. In the private sector neither raises, pay, nor promotions are regulated and they have these awesome things called bonuses that seem to just magically appear.
It is true that low level GS and NAF workers, such as childcare, janitors, cashiers, and such, make more than their private sector counterparts, but most upper level people make less. Working for the government is great if your goal is steady employment and a decent living wage, but not so great if you want to hit the high earner range.
Yep, pay discrepancy between .gov and the private sector for IT folks was so bad that IT job codes got an automatic adjustment the equivalent of one entire grade higher - so a GS10 IT employee actually got the pay of a GS11 employee. It still wasn't enough to keep most of the really good IT folks. More pay is why I left.
Government get more corrupt the bigger and richer it becomes. The little town I grew up in used to be such a nice town with so many small businesses and shops. Now in the middle of town they have a gigantic city hall that does not fit in with any other building. Most of the small businesses are gone. Corrupt, poor planning has ruined it. They have one Kwik Trip gas station because the owners have connections to city officials so no one else can get a gas station approved.
Kind of destroys the narrative of the “private sector pays better”.l doesn’t it? Maybe for a the select few. For the rank and files it’s always been better to work federal. Add in their 10x better retirement and benefits, they’re making 5 times more than lowly private sector employees
There’s a reason is so hard to get in and why it’s easy to work for any crappy corporation. No one wants to work for these slave factories in he private sector with no unions and rampant employee abuse
Another plus is you don’t laid off when some bloated executive toad decides to buy a third yacht
What retirement benefits? When I was a GS employee we got access to a 401K plan and that was it. I started as a .gov employee in 2002 and left in 2005. I seriously doubt the "retirement" plan has improved since then.
My husband was active duty military, was civil service for a while, then went with a private firm with very limited government business, it represents less than 7% of their revenue. Within two years he was making over four times as much as he made working for the government. In the private sector neither raises, pay, nor promotions are regulated and they have these awesome things called bonuses that seem to just magically appear.
It is true that low level GS and NAF workers, such as childcare, janitors, cashiers, and such, make more than their private sector counterparts, and maybe the lower end of middle management, but most upper level people make less. Working for the government is great if your goal is steady employment and a decent living wage, but not so great if you want to hit the high earner range.
Yeah, I think this is spot on. Federal employee bonuses are like 1% of their salary and only if they get a high rating. Nothing like the bonuses on the private side.
I know many attorneys who have spent a couple of years in the government to get experience in the inner workings of whatever agency covers the area of law they want to practice, only to leave and go in to private practice with a substantial leg up. It’s pretty invaluable experience. I know some agencies like the IRS and SSA have had retention problems in the past with attorneys for this precise reason.
Management experience in the federal government isn’t as valuable in the private sector since they operate by a completely different set of rules and norms, so I think a lot of federal managers sorta get pigeonholed.
What retirement benefits? When I was a GS employee we got access to a 401K plan and that was it. I started as a .gov employee in 2002 and left in 2005. I seriously doubt the "retirement" plan has improved since then.
To be fair, there is a FERS pension plan that you pay into. When you retire, you will get 1% of your high-three salary per year as a defined benefit.
So if you work for the federal government for 20 years and your high-thee is $100,000, you will get a defined pension payout of $20,000 per year along with whatever you did with your TSP.
Federal employees hired after 2012, must pay in about 4% of their salary towards this. Those employed earlier pay about 1% towards the pension.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
