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US Federal Employee Salaries (2012)

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Re: US Federal Employee Salaries (2012)

#31

Post by Jtsummers »

therobot24 wrote: post #9

wow a librarian at a GS14 level: [name removed] DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE LIBRARIAN Maryland Prince George's County BELTSVILLE GS 14 119238 I know the GS schedule is based on how long you work as opposed to how well you work, but i didn't think that non-STEM or non-Management roles made above GS11 or 12.

There are two components to GS, grade and step. Step is based on time, grade is based on position. It's also possible that this person came out as a GS-14 rather than a lower GS-12 or GS-13 due to the attempt at merit based pay (NSPS) that was canceled 3 (4?) years back. Their pay may have been improved via merit increases under NSPS and GS-14 might have been the closest equivalent to their pay or they could have been miscoded as a GS-14 equivalent and it wasn't corrected. Most of these were left as-is rather than fighting to "demote" them to avoid the hassle. Especially since most of them would be retiring within 5 years or so, or would have been promoted to that same level in the near future. Rather than demote them they just won't get the promotion just a lateral move.

GS grades tend to correspond to scope of work, degree of education required and scope of responsibilities. If the work doesn't require a college degree, don't expect anything above GS-9, and probably no better than GS-7. If it's "business ops" that requires a degree but has limited responsibilities you might be a GS-11, engineers are (after their "apprenticeship" period) between GS-11 and GS-13 (essentially, education + depth of knowledge, most GS-13 engineers will be SMEs, subject matter experts). Supervisors will typically be one grade above those they supervise, maybe on par with SMEs, with a typical minimum grade of GS-11. So a supervisor in charge of 40 engineers might be a GS-13, their boss would be a GS-14 and that persons boss a GS-15.

Re: US Federal Employee Salaries (2012)

#32

Post by dnautics »

therobot24 wrote: post #9

wow a librarian at a GS14 level: [name removed] DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE LIBRARIAN Maryland Prince George's County BELTSVILLE GS 14 119238 I know the GS schedule is based on how long you work as opposed to how well you work, but i didn't think that non-STEM or non-Management roles made above GS11 or 12.

"step" is determined by how long you work, GS number is determined by the job description.

Re: US Federal Employee Salaries (2012)

#33

Post by Jtsummers »

phaus wrote: post #18
Dirlewanger wrote: post #10

Great UI, love it. Didn't realize how many cushy jobs the government has...damn. Now I know why my parents kept telling me to look in the public sector first and foremost.

Most of the people who are making 100-200k would make at the very least double that if they were in the private sector. A GS-15 is equivalent to a Brigadier General(Who would be in charge of thousands of people). Now, keep in mind that some technology positions have inflated GS ranks because it was the only way they could get the salaries high enough to attract talent. Security analysts and programmers don't come che…

Paywise they're peers to Colonels and Brigadier Generals, position scope tends towards being equivalent to Colonel (AF, can't speak to other services or departments), with SES employees being the civil service peers to General officers.

Re: US Federal Employee Salaries (2012)

#34

Post by fpp »

Similar data, but still mostly limited to higher pay levels and by government department is available for the UK ( see for example: http://data.gov.uk/dataset/staff-organograms-and-pay-departm... )

a side note: It is generally accepted that the US government pays the highest salaries compared to other government agencies worldwide. This is the reason why the U.N. uses the US government scales and pays as their base (highest salaries of all member states) - of course before they put their "gravy" on it and more than double it.

Re: US Federal Employee Salaries (2012)

#35

Post by GabrielF00 »

whathappenedto wrote: post #26
maaku wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how being out of work without pay is cushy...

They'll be paid back when the government is no longer shut down. So if you have savings, it's essentially a forced paid vacation.

Workers who have been furloughed will only be paid back if Congress explicitly passes a bill to pay them. That has happened in previous shutdowns but it is not certain to happen this time.

Re: US Federal Employee Salaries (2012)

#36

Post by csmatt »

kalleboo wrote: post #13

You could probably make some amazing visualizations of this data. In Sweden, all the tax records are public information. You can literally look up how much your neighbor makes in a year. So each year after tax season, the tabloids all print up huge lists of "the richest people in YOUR neighborhood!". I've always been disappointed that with all this data, they've never gone beyond that and visualized the data geograph…

I'm not judging one way or another, but is privacy not something the Swedish people are interested in?

Re: US Federal Employee Salaries (2012)

#37

Post by msh345 »

fpp wrote: post #34

Similar data, but still mostly limited to higher pay levels and by government department is available for the UK ( see for example: http://data.gov.uk/dataset/staff-organograms-and-pay-departm... ) a side note: It is generally accepted that the US government pays the highest salaries compared to other government agencies worldwide. This is the reason why the U.N. uses the US government scales and pays as their base (…

More importantly, UN salaries are exempt from income tax: https://careers.un.org/lbw/home.aspx?viewtype=SAL

Re: US Federal Employee Salaries (2012)

#39

Post by Jtsummers »

phaus wrote: post #24
therobot24 wrote: post #9

wow a librarian at a GS14 level: [name removed] DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE LIBRARIAN Maryland Prince George's County BELTSVILLE GS 14 119238 I know the GS schedule is based on how long you work as opposed to how well you work, but i didn't think that non-STEM or non-Management roles made above GS11 or 12.

GS isn't based entirely on how long you work. Most positions have a cap. There are also plenty of places that generally don't promote people because the management sucks or they don't have funding. There are also ways to prevent substandard employees from getting promoted. Perhaps the term librarian means something other than what we think it does, like the librarian of congress. Perhaps its a supervisor at an enormo…

Keep in mind, it's also not uncommon for those in charge of others to have the same title. That is, in an engineering office the one in charge of a group of 1k engineers is likely an engineer as well, so they'd be a GS-14 or GS-15 electrical engineer. So the person who rose through the ranks of librarians from the lowest level to being in charge of a group of librarians would similarly be a GS-13 or GS-14 librarian.

Re: US Federal Employee Salaries (2012)

#40

Post by rayiner »

therobot24 wrote: post #9

wow a librarian at a GS14 level: [name removed] DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE LIBRARIAN Maryland Prince George's County BELTSVILLE GS 14 119238 I know the GS schedule is based on how long you work as opposed to how well you work, but i didn't think that non-STEM or non-Management roles made above GS11 or 12.

Unless you're talking about a public library catering to homeless people and children, a "librarian" is typically an educated professional, usually with an advanced degree, who has enough subject matter expertise to efficiently help researchers find relevant materials.
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