Federal employee salary redacted

[Anonymous]

My DH was a federal employee for 20 years, before switching to a law firm.

It always seemed like an invasion of privacy that his particular salary information was available online. I find it disrespectful to federal employees.

Also, these random web sites had his salary listed as a much lower amount than he was being paid. He didn't bother to try to go to these web sites to get it fixed.

It only mattered really during his job search (when attempting to transition to the private sector), as some places would ask about salary history. He didn't want them to think he had a lower salary than he really had. But granted that was easily fixable by showing the W-2s.

[Anonymous]

Some agencies don't disclose all salaries like DHS. Ultimately it's not a big deal. Federal employees openly talk about their pay and benefits since they are on a GS scale and assume their pay is public knowledge. You can ask someone their pay grade and then find their salary on OPM's website. I imagine these websites are just for people who gripe that any public salary is excessive.

[Anonymous]

For the first five or so years of its existence, the CFPB did not make its salaries public. Then they did, and people discovered extraordinary disparities among people with similar experience performing the exact same jobs (the racial disparities got the most attention, but there were white males who were also underpaid because, for example, their starting salary had been based on salary history, and they had come from the government versus the private sector). I am not sure that those disparities were ever fully eliminated, but making the salaries public was a big first step and did lead to pay bumps for many people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
My DH was a federal employee for 20 years, before switching to a law firm.

It always seemed like an invasion of privacy that his particular salary information was available online. I find it disrespectful to federal employees.

Also, these random web sites had his salary listed as a much lower amount than he was being paid. He didn't bother to try to go to these web sites to get it fixed.

It only mattered really during his job search (when attempting to transition to the private sector), as some places would ask about salary history. He didn't want them to think he had a lower salary than he really had. But granted that was easily fixable by showing the W-2s.

Boohoo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
My DH was a federal employee for 20 years, before switching to a law firm.

It always seemed like an invasion of privacy that his particular salary information was available online. I find it disrespectful to federal employees.

Also, these random web sites had his salary listed as a much lower amount than he was being paid. He didn't bother to try to go to these web sites to get it fixed.

It only mattered really during his job search (when attempting to transition to the private sector), as some places would ask about salary history. He didn't want them to think he had a lower salary than he really had. But granted that was easily fixable by showing the W-2s.

As a FOIA person I have never seen these websites be wrong. They may not disclose all salaries but we aren't in the business of giving incorrect information under a FOIA. Plus showing a W2 to leave federal service is crazy. He did your family dirty on that negotiation.

[Anonymous]

Unless IC, fed salary info is publicly available OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another exclusion outside of the intelligence agencies are independent agencies where pay is based on performance- as in, I get a 20K salary increase if my performance was awesome last year and a 15K increase if it was good.

It can be witheld from FOIA and then not make it to those websites because of that privacy info.

Given that you said this person makes over 200K I'm guessing this is the reason. Try looking up other people at their agency. Are all the salaries redacted?

Sorry why would that be withheld under FOIA? Bonuses are public information as well. I fail to see how anyone outside of intelligence and DOD can get their salaries withheld.

Because disclosing a performance based bonus would disclose an employee's performance ratings, and that's not subject to foia.

Ratings are not releasable, but performance bonuses aren’t the same thing. I’m a consistently high achiever, certain offices just don’t pay much in bonuses and others will always give you 4k. Performance bonuses aren’t equal to your bonus. Some offices have 5k as the yearly cap. My dh has never received a performance bonus from his agency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another exclusion outside of the intelligence agencies are independent agencies where pay is based on performance- as in, I get a 20K salary increase if my performance was awesome last year and a 15K increase if it was good.

It can be witheld from FOIA and then not make it to those websites because of that privacy info.

Given that you said this person makes over 200K I'm guessing this is the reason. Try looking up other people at their agency. Are all the salaries redacted?

Sorry why would that be withheld under FOIA? Bonuses are public information as well. I fail to see how anyone outside of intelligence and DOD can get their salaries withheld.

Because disclosing a performance based bonus would disclose an employee's performance ratings, and that's not subject to foia.

Ratings are not releasable, but performance bonuses aren’t the same thing. I’m a consistently high achiever, certain offices just don’t pay much in bonuses and others will always give you 4k. Performance bonuses aren’t equal to your bonus. Some offices have 5k as the yearly cap. My dh has never received a performance bonus from his agency.

People are confused. The issue is not bonus. It is actual change to base salary as a result of performance. Some independent agencies not on the GS schedule do this. And many of them withhold salary information as a result.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless IC, fed salary info is publicly available OP.

Wrong

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
My DH was a federal employee for 20 years, before switching to a law firm.

It always seemed like an invasion of privacy that his particular salary information was available online. I find it disrespectful to federal employees.

Also, these random web sites had his salary listed as a much lower amount than he was being paid. He didn't bother to try to go to these web sites to get it fixed.

It only mattered really during his job search (when attempting to transition to the private sector), as some places would ask about salary history. He didn't want them to think he had a lower salary than he really had. But granted that was easily fixable by showing the W-2s.

As a FOIA person I have never seen these websites be wrong. They may not disclose all salaries but we aren't in the business of giving incorrect information under a FOIA. Plus showing a W2 to leave federal service is crazy. He did your family dirty on that negotiation.

They are sometimes "wrong" based on the information that was requested under FOIA. If they ask only for base salary, that is what they'll get. But many federal employees get various allowance and differentials on top of that base amount. These are not included.

[Anonymous]

OP - Why are you looking up someone's salary?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless IC, fed salary info is publicly available OP.

Wrong

Wrong what way?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless IC, fed salary info is publicly available OP.

Wrong

Wrong what way?

Apologies, I shouldn't have been so curt. There are a couple of ways that salary may not be "publicly available"

1. As discussed in this thread, it is not only the IC that witholds salary info in FOIA requests.
2. Often what is disclosed is not "total compensation." Just base salary.
2. Generally the FOIA releases are dated, often a year old. So if somebody recently joined, changed positions, or got a promotion, it would not be available or accurate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless IC, fed salary info is publicly available OP.

Wrong

Wrong what way?

Apologies, I shouldn't have been so curt. There are a couple of ways that salary may not be "publicly available"

1. As discussed in this thread, it is not only the IC that witholds salary info in FOIA requests.
2. Often what is disclosed is not "total compensation." Just base salary.
2. Generally the FOIA releases are dated, often a year old. So if somebody recently joined, changed positions, or got a promotion, it would not be available or accurate.

I can look up my info easy w/o FOIA and it’s pretty dang close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless IC, fed salary info is publicly available OP.

Wrong

Wrong what way?

Apologies, I shouldn't have been so curt. There are a couple of ways that salary may not be "publicly available"

1. As discussed in this thread, it is not only the IC that witholds salary info in FOIA requests.
2. Often what is disclosed is not "total compensation." Just base salary.
2. Generally the FOIA releases are dated, often a year old. So if somebody recently joined, changed positions, or got a promotion, it would not be available or accurate.

I can look up my info easy w/o FOIA and it’s pretty dang close.

I'm not sure what your point is? If you are looking up your name and getting a salary.....that is a result of somebody submitting a FOIA request.
And just because you can see your salary does not mean that all of the nearly 2M federal salaries are equally available.