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US Federal Employee Salaries (2012)

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Re: US Federal Employee Salaries (2012)

#51

Post by meepmorp »

rayiner wrote: post #40
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.

Catering to homeless people and children? Seriously?

Re: US Federal Employee Salaries (2012)

#52

Post by Jtsummers »

phaus wrote: post #44
Jtsummers wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You're right, I was a rank off. That being said, a Colonel is often still in charge of a couple thousand people.

Absolutely, and the comparisons get kind of hairy sometimes. GS-12+ aren't all supervisory, it's possible to have GS-14 and 15s that are mostly specialists with few or no individuals in their direct charge. For those curious, the general mapping of GS grades to officer ranks:

GS-15 = O-6 (Colonel/Navy Captain)

GS-14 = O-5 (Lt Colonel/Commander)

GS-13 = O-4 (Major)

GS-12 = O-3 (Captain, this is the journeyman level for engineesr)

GS-9/11 = O-1/2 (Lt's, apprentice stage)

GS doesn't start at 9, though. The lower grades are typically limited scope, no supervisory responsibility, office jobs (secretaries, mail room, clerk, data entry, etc.). Or they're training positions, straight out of college an engineer may be a GS-5/7 and after 2-4 years a GS-11/12. They don't really have a clean comparison to military ranks, that I know of.

Re: US Federal Employee Salaries (2012)

#53

Post by Shivetya »

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…

also include in your exception list, political appointees. I haven't scanned the whole list so I am wondering if the members of the Whitehouse staff, Congress, and similar, are available? The Whitehouse has nearly 500 listed on their site.

The sheer number of government employees is amazing especially when you consider you have to add on top of these numbers those at state, city, and local, levels.

Re: US Federal Employee Salaries (2012)

#55

Post by fpp »

msh345 wrote: post #37
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

yes, that's on top of the so called post adjustment that for e.g. Geneva (last time I looked) was around 96% (base salary + post adjustment = net salary (+ normal tax rate) -> gross salary in the private sector (30 working days holidays p.a., up to 70% pension levels (17years contribution) with 5 years+ contributions getting you a pension, for senior staff add no VAT, 50% lower petrol prices, real tax & duty free shopping everyday - about half or less your airport shop, etc etc etc)

...and as salaries are normally paid besides tax free also tax equalized (the US is demanding income taxes from all citizens wherever they live including UN staff - the UN covers these taxes for US citizens and a handful other countries) the US pays itself back (via income tax) a nice discount of certainly 10% of its contributions to the UN.

Re: US Federal Employee Salaries (2012)

#56

Post by Jtsummers »

whathappenedto wrote: post #50
maaku wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They only get paid if Congress specifically includes language paying them. People are merely assuming congress will do so on what, good faith? Given the nature of this whole bruhaha, I wouldn't discount entirely the possibility of no back-pay.

I thought the issue of back pay was already resolved (back pay was approved in congress): http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57606174/government-shut...

The Senate didn't pass it. However, since both houses are passing the same thing but at different times or as part of different packages, it's all but certain that when the time comes back pay will happen.

Re: US Federal Employee Salaries (2012)

#57

Post by dj_axl »

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…

> Most of the people who are making 100-200k would make at the very least double that if they were in the private sector.

The base salary would double. However they'd be left without a pension, and other benefits though I think the pension is easily the largest monetary value.

Re: US Federal Employee Salaries (2012)

#58

Post by zachsnow »

csmatt wrote: post #36
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?

If you were Swedish you might not consider it private information. Being from the US I do, but I don't consider my age private. It's difficult to say where a culture should draw the line, in an objective way.

Re: US Federal Employee Salaries (2012)

#59

Post by kalleboo »

csmatt wrote: post #36
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?

On the whole, I'd say privacy is valued similar. It's just a small quirk. Same how Americans tolerate banks having a secret-sauce shared credit validation system with god knows what information they sell back and forth.

Re: US Federal Employee Salaries (2012)

#60

Post by mikegreen »

phaus wrote: post #44
Jtsummers wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You're right, I was a rank off. That being said, a Colonel is often still in charge of a couple thousand people.

I disagree. I worked with plenty of AF Col's in the 5-sided-puzzle-palace that managed offices with 15-30 folks. They worked alongside a GS-13 to GS-15 types.
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