Finreg or best paying federal agencies?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, it's odd that you won't say what your field is. That makes it difficult to come up with ideas. It's relatively easy to transfer agencies with certain kinds of law practice (every agency needs procurement attorneys, for example) or other widely needed specialties (HR, IT, PR, contracting) but if you want to be in policy you are going to need expertise in the subject matter that agency handles.

If your plan is learn a new field, the two that are most likely to have special pay scales are cybersecurity and finreg. And sometimes law enforcement.

Okay fair it’s contracting and a bunch of other IT and data rights things and I finished a CDP. I was thinking about what next few years look like and was looking at executive branch re: FAR but family situation is making me rethink financial situation. I don’t want to go to private but realize that would maximize earning power. I just found a few folks I came across at these agencies …now I get why they moved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:different finregs have differing benefits and payscales.

SEC will not pay match, but will calculate your pay in your position band based on an experience matrix. the resume you submit to the job application has to have ALL of your work experience in order for that to be used in the pay calculation. I think CFTC and FDIC also have secret pay matrices rather than pay matching.

SEC offers an additional 3% retirement match into a *cash* account that vests after 3 years that you can sweep into the TSP on a rolling basis until its fully vested at 5 years. If your annual raise takes you over the maximum of the payband the overage is given as a cash bonus. You can roll over 400ish hours of annual leave, all employees now start receiving 6 hours of leave per pay period rather than starting at 4, and the bump to 8 happens at 10 years of service. They provide vision and dental insurance, and options to purchase life insurance, STD, and LTD policies.

At OFR, if you contribute 5% to TSP and 1% to the OFR 401k, OFR will match 5% in the TSP and deposit an additional 5% match in the 401k. There is also a $1400 health-and-wellness benefit, STD and LTD and life insurance policies, as well as dental and vision. OFR uses OCC geo-pay tables, so calculations involving base salary and geo pay will vary compared to other agencies.

CFPB leverages the FRB pension plan, which is very different than the FERS plan (calculations are complex, but it works out to about 1.3% per year rather than the FERS 1%). I believe once you are at 5 years you can decide whether to roll over your FERS years into the FRB plan, the only caveat is there is no way to roll BACK if you go back to a FERS position before retirement, and the FRB plan makes it very punitive to retire before 67. OTOH, you can retire at 55 after 5 years.

FDIC does a total of a 10% match to a thrift plan, CFPB does 8%, FRB does 7%.

There are generally not different type of payscales per speciality in the finregs, there can be IT specialists and lawyers and economists all in SK-14 payscale, which is the "equivalent" of a GS-14.

OP here incredible information thank you I wish there was more transparency like the GS and SES scale generally. Thank you for sharing the information!!

[Anonymous]

You should get into FOIA or records management or data governance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:different finregs have differing benefits and payscales.

SEC will not pay match, but will calculate your pay in your position band based on an experience matrix. the resume you submit to the job application has to have ALL of your work experience in order for that to be used in the pay calculation. I think CFTC and FDIC also have secret pay matrices rather than pay matching.

SEC offers an additional 3% retirement match into a *cash* account that vests after 3 years that you can sweep into the TSP on a rolling basis until its fully vested at 5 years. If your annual raise takes you over the maximum of the payband the overage is given as a cash bonus. You can roll over 400ish hours of annual leave, all employees now start receiving 6 hours of leave per pay period rather than starting at 4, and the bump to 8 happens at 10 years of service. They provide vision and dental insurance, and options to purchase life insurance, STD, and LTD policies.

At OFR, if you contribute 5% to TSP and 1% to the OFR 401k, OFR will match 5% in the TSP and deposit an additional 5% match in the 401k. There is also a $1400 health-and-wellness benefit, STD and LTD and life insurance policies, as well as dental and vision. OFR uses OCC geo-pay tables, so calculations involving base salary and geo pay will vary compared to other agencies.

CFPB leverages the FRB pension plan, which is very different than the FERS plan (calculations are complex, but it works out to about 1.3% per year rather than the FERS 1%). I believe once you are at 5 years you can decide whether to roll over your FERS years into the FRB plan, the only caveat is there is no way to roll BACK if you go back to a FERS position before retirement, and the FRB plan makes it very punitive to retire before 67. OTOH, you can retire at 55 after 5 years.

FDIC does a total of a 10% match to a thrift plan, CFPB does 8%, FRB does 7%.

There are generally not different type of payscales per speciality in the finregs, there can be IT specialists and lawyers and economists all in SK-14 payscale, which is the "equivalent" of a GS-14.

FRB gives you 1% in the thrift plan and matches the next 7%. FRB provides a stipend to offset a healthy portion of the health insurance premiums.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:different finregs have differing benefits and payscales.

SEC will not pay match, but will calculate your pay in your position band based on an experience matrix. the resume you submit to the job application has to have ALL of your work experience in order for that to be used in the pay calculation. I think CFTC and FDIC also have secret pay matrices rather than pay matching.

SEC offers an additional 3% retirement match into a *cash* account that vests after 3 years that you can sweep into the TSP on a rolling basis until its fully vested at 5 years. If your annual raise takes you over the maximum of the payband the overage is given as a cash bonus. You can roll over 400ish hours of annual leave, all employees now start receiving 6 hours of leave per pay period rather than starting at 4, and the bump to 8 happens at 10 years of service. They provide vision and dental insurance, and options to purchase life insurance, STD, and LTD policies.

At OFR, if you contribute 5% to TSP and 1% to the OFR 401k, OFR will match 5% in the TSP and deposit an additional 5% match in the 401k. There is also a $1400 health-and-wellness benefit, STD and LTD and life insurance policies, as well as dental and vision. OFR uses OCC geo-pay tables, so calculations involving base salary and geo pay will vary compared to other agencies.

CFPB leverages the FRB pension plan, which is very different than the FERS plan (calculations are complex, but it works out to about 1.3% per year rather than the FERS 1%). I believe once you are at 5 years you can decide whether to roll over your FERS years into the FRB plan, the only caveat is there is no way to roll BACK if you go back to a FERS position before retirement, and the FRB plan makes it very punitive to retire before 67. OTOH, you can retire at 55 after 5 years.

FDIC does a total of a 10% match to a thrift plan, CFPB does 8%, FRB does 7%.

There are generally not different type of payscales per speciality in the finregs, there can be IT specialists and lawyers and economists all in SK-14 payscale, which is the "equivalent" of a GS-14.

Are you sure there is no way to xfer back to FERS after converting FERS to FRS at the CFPB?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:different finregs have differing benefits and payscales.

SEC will not pay match, but will calculate your pay in your position band based on an experience matrix. the resume you submit to the job application has to have ALL of your work experience in order for that to be used in the pay calculation. I think CFTC and FDIC also have secret pay matrices rather than pay matching.

SEC offers an additional 3% retirement match into a *cash* account that vests after 3 years that you can sweep into the TSP on a rolling basis until its fully vested at 5 years. If your annual raise takes you over the maximum of the payband the overage is given as a cash bonus. You can roll over 400ish hours of annual leave, all employees now start receiving 6 hours of leave per pay period rather than starting at 4, and the bump to 8 happens at 10 years of service. They provide vision and dental insurance, and options to purchase life insurance, STD, and LTD policies.

At OFR, if you contribute 5% to TSP and 1% to the OFR 401k, OFR will match 5% in the TSP and deposit an additional 5% match in the 401k. There is also a $1400 health-and-wellness benefit, STD and LTD and life insurance policies, as well as dental and vision. OFR uses OCC geo-pay tables, so calculations involving base salary and geo pay will vary compared to other agencies.

CFPB leverages the FRB pension plan, which is very different than the FERS plan (calculations are complex, but it works out to about 1.3% per year rather than the FERS 1%). I believe once you are at 5 years you can decide whether to roll over your FERS years into the FRB plan, the only caveat is there is no way to roll BACK if you go back to a FERS position before retirement, and the FRB plan makes it very punitive to retire before 67. OTOH, you can retire at 55 after 5 years.

FDIC does a total of a 10% match to a thrift plan, CFPB does 8%, FRB does 7%.

There are generally not different type of payscales per speciality in the finregs, there can be IT specialists and lawyers and economists all in SK-14 payscale, which is the "equivalent" of a GS-14.

Are you sure there is no way to xfer back to FERS after converting FERS to FRS at the CFPB?

am i sure? no, one should talk to HR at the FRB if at all possible. but as far as i can tell, this bill to address the problem passed the house in 1999 but was never taken up by the senate: https://www.congress.gov/bill/106th-congress/house-bill/807

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To 13:00:

You state that the FRB pension plan penalizes retirement before age 67.

Could you explain? I am at FRB and have never heard this. There is a large incentive to retire after 65 up to age 70 via an increasing multiplier, but I have not heard that retirement before 67 is penalized.

ah, sorry, was working off memory. the congressional testimony indicated retirement before 65 or (age+ years-of-service=90) would result in a pension that is possibly 37.5% of the full pension, but again, I don't have access to the FRB current actuarial tables, or current retirement plan docs. for some reason the people i know at the FRB haven't spent the time to find it and send it all over to me. I'd also love to have more information about the Portable Cash Option, but... waaah. Anyway, I still haven't gotten a job offer from the FRB or CFPB so it's all academic for me.

https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/testimony/1999/19990225.htm#AttachmentB

[Anonymous]

Other than the specialty series (e.g., physicians), another higher pay scale I know of is 21st Century Cures at FDA (and I think NIH). But that’s generally scientists and public health.

I had a similar situation—needed extra cash for parental caregiving. I switched to a really well paying state job. Wasn’t that much more than the feds, but the benefits were way better and I had way more flexibility. I hadn’t realized how many things I paid a premium for (e.g., lunches out, ubers, formal clothing, weekly therapy) because my job was really stressful. Once I switched I actually saved a lot more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:different finregs have differing benefits and payscales.

SEC will not pay match, but will calculate your pay in your position band based on an experience matrix. the resume you submit to the job application has to have ALL of your work experience in order for that to be used in the pay calculation. I think CFTC and FDIC also have secret pay matrices rather than pay matching.

SEC offers an additional 3% retirement match into a *cash* account that vests after 3 years that you can sweep into the TSP on a rolling basis until its fully vested at 5 years. If your annual raise takes you over the maximum of the payband the overage is given as a cash bonus. You can roll over 400ish hours of annual leave, all employees now start receiving 6 hours of leave per pay period rather than starting at 4, and the bump to 8 happens at 10 years of service. They provide vision and dental insurance, and options to purchase life insurance, STD, and LTD policies.

At OFR, if you contribute 5% to TSP and 1% to the OFR 401k, OFR will match 5% in the TSP and deposit an additional 5% match in the 401k. There is also a $1400 health-and-wellness benefit, STD and LTD and life insurance policies, as well as dental and vision. OFR uses OCC geo-pay tables, so calculations involving base salary and geo pay will vary compared to other agencies.

CFPB leverages the FRB pension plan, which is very different than the FERS plan (calculations are complex, but it works out to about 1.3% per year rather than the FERS 1%). I believe once you are at 5 years you can decide whether to roll over your FERS years into the FRB plan, the only caveat is there is no way to roll BACK if you go back to a FERS position before retirement, and the FRB plan makes it very punitive to retire before 67. OTOH, you can retire at 55 after 5 years.

FDIC does a total of a 10% match to a thrift plan, CFPB does 8%, FRB does 7%.

There are generally not different type of payscales per speciality in the finregs, there can be IT specialists and lawyers and economists all in SK-14 payscale, which is the "equivalent" of a GS-14.

OP here incredible information thank you I wish there was more transparency like the GS and SES scale generally. Thank you for sharing the information!!

I mean the payscales are generally transparent!

As far as I know, SEC, FDIC, OFR, OCC, CFTC, CFPB advertise their jobs on usajobs.com, you can search by agency or else just sort the matching jobs by descending salary and you'll find them. FRB jobs are only on their website and possibly linkedin.

https://www.sec.gov/about/careers/sec-compensation
https://www.financialresearch.gov/compensation-and-benefits/
https://www.federalreserve.gov/careers-salary.htm (FRB doesn't have geo-pay)
https://www.fdic.gov/about/careers/benefits/compensation/
https://www.cftc.gov/careers/salary.htm
https://careers.occ.gov/pay-and-benefits/salary/index-occ-salary-structure.html
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/careers/pay-scales/

[Anonymous]

here is a comparison of several of the retirement plans: https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R47084.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To 13:00:

You state that the FRB pension plan penalizes retirement before age 67.

Could you explain? I am at FRB and have never heard this. There is a large incentive to retire after 65 up to age 70 via an increasing multiplier, but I have not heard that retirement before 67 is penalized.

ah, sorry, was working off memory. the congressional testimony indicated retirement before 65 or (age+ years-of-service=90) would result in a pension that is possibly 37.5% of the full pension, but again, I don't have access to the FRB current actuarial tables, or current retirement plan docs. for some reason the people i know at the FRB haven't spent the time to find it and send it all over to me. I'd also love to have more information about the Portable Cash Option, but... waaah. Anyway, I still haven't gotten a job offer from the FRB or CFPB so it's all academic for me.

https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/testimony/1999/19990225.htm#AttachmentB

I see—the chart is quite out of date. Don’t know if I could replicate with updated information as the formulas get quite convoluted. The standard retirement age is 65. Then a multiplier kicks in that increases month by month until it hits 1.6 at age 70. I don’t know if any other Finreg has an inducement like this to stay on past 65.

[Anonymous]

My husband is a GS 15 and works overseas. Last year he made $246K due to all the OT. You may want to consider that path.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband is a GS 15 and works overseas. Last year he made $246K due to all the OT. You may want to consider that path.

Thanks for sharing another possible option; I’ve worked at a few places and didn’t really have OT as an option but may just be my agencies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband is a GS 15 and works overseas. Last year he made $246K due to all the OT. You may want to consider that path.

Interesting. My agency allows overtime as credit hours, so while I can bank the time, it does not pay out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To 13:00:

You state that the FRB pension plan penalizes retirement before age 67.

Could you explain? I am at FRB and have never heard this. There is a large incentive to retire after 65 up to age 70 via an increasing multiplier, but I have not heard that retirement before 67 is penalized.

ah, sorry, was working off memory. the congressional testimony indicated retirement before 65 or (age+ years-of-service=90) would result in a pension that is possibly 37.5% of the full pension, but again, I don't have access to the FRB current actuarial tables, or current retirement plan docs. for some reason the people i know at the FRB haven't spent the time to find it and send it all over to me. I'd also love to have more information about the Portable Cash Option, but... waaah. Anyway, I still haven't gotten a job offer from the FRB or CFPB so it's all academic for me.

https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/testimony/1999/19990225.htm#AttachmentB

I see—the chart is quite out of date. Don’t know if I could replicate with updated information as the formulas get quite convoluted. The standard retirement age is 65. Then a multiplier kicks in that increases month by month until it hits 1.6 at age 70. I don’t know if any other Finreg has an inducement like this to stay on past 65.

yeah, i don't think i wanna work for another 18 years, that seems like forever. even working until 62 (i didnt join the federal gov until i was 40) kind of sucks. 😭🤣

otoh, if i went over at 50 and stay 5 years, I could just retire at 55 with the PCO and the health plan and then go back to FERS for however long I actually feel like working.