Compensation and pension at Federal Reserve

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone. I currently work at the SEC and am looking around for new opportunities. Only interested in fed jobs for now. Specifically the FRB interests me. Can anyone shed some light as to what the typical raise/bonus is? Feel free to use a range to anonymize the info. Also, will I get credited for my years of federal service if I transfer over to the FRB’s pension plan? Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

FYI FRB is great place to work, but they fire much more readily than SEC. You get a bump on pay, high pension %, but take on less stability.

[Anonymous]

Yes your time at the SEC will transfer and be creditable (and you may actually get a cash payout or rollover of whatever your contributions to FERS or whatever)
The pension simply cannot be beat, anywhere by any organization
Promotion raises are roughly 10% and annual bonuses are in that ballpark
Plus COL each year that is not that great.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you! Yes, I’ve read in other threads about how great the pension is. The SEC is slated to get roughly a 7.5% raise next year (give or take, it’s the raise given to GS employees plus 2.65% with some adjustments for locality). I do have to consider the part about getting fired or laid off. That’s pretty much nonexistent at the SEC unless someone isn’t even barely fulfilling their own responsibilities. I’ve never had that problem even when I was in private sector, but I know sometimes layoffs aren’t linked to performance or anything the employee can control.

Do you know what’s the policy on starting comp at the FRB? If I’m around $200k at the SEC, would they just match or can I negotiate? Or even worse, go off some predefined formula using years of experience and I actually have to take a cut?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FYI FRB is great place to work, but they fire much more readily than SEC. You get a bump on pay, high pension %, but take on less stability.

NP but what is the FRB's pension formula? How much is the contribution?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you! Yes, I’ve read in other threads about how great the pension is. The SEC is slated to get roughly a 7.5% raise next year (give or take, it’s the raise given to GS employees plus 2.65% with some adjustments for locality). I do have to consider the part about getting fired or laid off. That’s pretty much nonexistent at the SEC unless someone isn’t even barely fulfilling their own responsibilities. I’ve never had that problem even when I was in private sector, but I know sometimes layoffs aren’t linked to performance or anything the employee can control.

Do you know what’s the policy on starting comp at the FRB? If I’m around $200k at the SEC, would they just match or can I negotiate? Or even worse, go off some predefined formula using years of experience and I actually have to take a cut?

FRB doesn't automatically adjust salaries according to the GS-approved annual increase. It adjusts salaries annually based on your annual review (3Cs). Get a bad review? Well, you might be getting no increase even if the GS salaries are going up 5-7% next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI FRB is great place to work, but they fire much more readily than SEC. You get a bump on pay, high pension %, but take on less stability.

NP but what is the FRB's pension formula? How much is the contribution?

Employees have a contribution of......$0. It's 100% employer-funded by the FRB.

The output calculations are also more generous than the FERS pension given to GS-scale employees and those at the FDIC or OCC. The pension is about 30% higher than than same salary on the FERS pension system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you! Yes, I’ve read in other threads about how great the pension is. The SEC is slated to get roughly a 7.5% raise next year (give or take, it’s the raise given to GS employees plus 2.65% with some adjustments for locality). I do have to consider the part about getting fired or laid off. That’s pretty much nonexistent at the SEC unless someone isn’t even barely fulfilling their own responsibilities. I’ve never had that problem even when I was in private sector, but I know sometimes layoffs aren’t linked to performance or anything the employee can control.

Do you know what’s the policy on starting comp at the FRB? If I’m around $200k at the SEC, would they just match or can I negotiate? Or even worse, go off some predefined formula using years of experience and I actually have to take a cut?

FRB doesn't automatically adjust salaries according to the GS-approved annual increase. It adjusts salaries annually based on your annual review (3Cs). Get a bad review? Well, you might be getting no increase even if the GS salaries are going up 5-7% next year.

NP and it's interesting that the FRB has found a way to award merit-based increases whereas that experiment has apparently failed at the other financial regulators (i.e. CFPB comes to mind).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you! Yes, I’ve read in other threads about how great the pension is. The SEC is slated to get roughly a 7.5% raise next year (give or take, it’s the raise given to GS employees plus 2.65% with some adjustments for locality). I do have to consider the part about getting fired or laid off. That’s pretty much nonexistent at the SEC unless someone isn’t even barely fulfilling their own responsibilities. I’ve never had that problem even when I was in private sector, but I know sometimes layoffs aren’t linked to performance or anything the employee can control.

Do you know what’s the policy on starting comp at the FRB? If I’m around $200k at the SEC, would they just match or can I negotiate? Or even worse, go off some predefined formula using years of experience and I actually have to take a cut?

FRB doesn't automatically adjust salaries according to the GS-approved annual increase. It adjusts salaries annually based on your annual review (3Cs). Get a bad review? Well, you might be getting no increase even if the GS salaries are going up 5-7% next year.

NP and it's interesting that the FRB has found a way to award merit-based increases whereas that experiment has apparently failed at the other financial regulators (i.e. CFPB comes to mind).

There's also merit bonus at year-end that ties to your pay grade and 3Cs review for the year. Plus there are cash spot awards or leave awards for finishing a big project or high priority initiative.

There's quite a few levers the FRB can pull to incentivize performance.

[Anonymous]

Any chance we can get a range of the raise percentage for the various “ratings”? With apparently 0% for rock bottom performers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any chance we can get a range of the raise percentage for the various “ratings”? With apparently 0% for rock bottom performers.

2.6% for almost everyone. 4% for the top performers. Hardly worth what it takes to be rated a top performer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any chance we can get a range of the raise percentage for the various “ratings”? With apparently 0% for rock bottom performers.

2.6% for almost everyone. 4% for the top performers. Hardly worth what it takes to be rated a top performer.

Seriously? Do they have steps at the Fed Reserve because if not the raise is less than what the GS folks will get if you add in the average value of steps over a career which is about 1.5%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any chance we can get a range of the raise percentage for the various “ratings”? With apparently 0% for rock bottom performers.

2.6% for almost everyone. 4% for the top performers. Hardly worth what it takes to be rated a top performer.

Seriously? Do they have steps at the Fed Reserve because if not the raise is less than what the GS folks will get if you add in the average value of steps over a career which is about 1.5%.

No steps. But they do a true-up every two years if your salary has not kept up with the median in your grade.

For example, I got a 2% true-up in August 2021 and then 2.7% increase in December 2021 tied to the results of my annual review. I also got a $17K year-end bonus in Dec 2021.

This year will be wild because of inflation. Will be interesting to see what percentages they give that are tied to the results of the annual review.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any chance we can get a range of the raise percentage for the various “ratings”? With apparently 0% for rock bottom performers.

2.6% for almost everyone. 4% for the top performers. Hardly worth what it takes to be rated a top performer.

Seriously? Do they have steps at the Fed Reserve because if not the raise is less than what the GS folks will get if you add in the average value of steps over a career which is about 1.5%.

The raise may be less than the GS scale, but if the comp is higher then the percentages still lead to a higher comp overall at retirement, especially when you factor in the significantly higher salary cap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Do you know what’s the policy on starting comp at the FRB? If I’m around $200k at the SEC, would they just match or can I negotiate? Or even worse, go off some predefined formula using years of experience and I actually have to take a cut?

What’s your current grade and salary? And what type of jobs are you looking at? $200K would be very high to start.