Are SEC/CFPB/FDIC/OCC Employees Exempt from Federal Raise Announced by Biden?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The lesson learned from this thread is to negotiate your pay knowing what the merit raise will be for the next year in the CBA (i.e. akin to what biglaw laterals do when lateraling to other biglaw firms and negotiating to get the full bonus even though he/she didn't work at the firm for the whole year).

You really can't negotiate at the SEC. They have a matrix based on years of experience and you get what you get. You can ask them to reconsider to make sure they put you in there correctly because errors definitely happen but if they've done it correctly that's the pay you're going to get.

That is fair, but may be different at the banking agencies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The lesson learned from this thread is to negotiate your pay knowing what the merit raise will be for the next year in the CBA (i.e. akin to what biglaw laterals do when lateraling to other biglaw firms and negotiating to get the full bonus even though he/she didn't work at the firm for the whole year).

You really can't negotiate at the SEC. They have a matrix based on years of experience and you get what you get. You can ask them to reconsider to make sure they put you in there correctly because errors definitely happen but if they've done it correctly that's the pay you're going to get.

That is fair, but may be different at the banking agencies.

Basically every FIRREA agency is going to be different. a previous agency gave me 15% bump over my private-sector salary+bonus, which fortunately had just been raised. but I started too late (july) to qualify for the performance raise.

at the SEC, employees who are onboard during the 8th pay period will receive the GS increase plus locality starting in the 9th pay period. Employees who were onboard as of Oct 31 the prior year AND received an acceptable rating will receive the 2.65% merit increase.

but the fact remains it's as impossible to time an agency transfer into a solid role as it is to time the stock market. may the odds be ever in your favor!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The lesson learned from this thread is to negotiate your pay knowing what the merit raise will be for the next year in the CBA (i.e. akin to what biglaw laterals do when lateraling to other biglaw firms and negotiating to get the full bonus even though he/she didn't work at the firm for the whole year).

You really can't negotiate at the SEC. They have a matrix based on years of experience and you get what you get. You can ask them to reconsider to make sure they put you in there correctly because errors definitely happen but if they've done it correctly that's the pay you're going to get.

Does this mean who is an attorney that has 4 years experience get the same pay? Even if they came from a massive big law salary or a smaller in-house/GS salary?

Also, my director at the SEC was pretty flexible with letting me onboard a month and half to get a bonus and 401k match. So to the extent that could have knocked someone out of the merit raise, it would have been worth doing the math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The lesson learned from this thread is to negotiate your pay knowing what the merit raise will be for the next year in the CBA (i.e. akin to what biglaw laterals do when lateraling to other biglaw firms and negotiating to get the full bonus even though he/she didn't work at the firm for the whole year).

You really can't negotiate at the SEC. They have a matrix based on years of experience and you get what you get. You can ask them to reconsider to make sure they put you in there correctly because errors definitely happen but if they've done it correctly that's the pay you're going to get.

Does this mean who is an attorney that has 4 years experience get the same pay? Even if they came from a massive big law salary or a smaller in-house/GS salary?

Also, my director at the SEC was pretty flexible with letting me onboard a month and half to get a bonus and 401k match. So to the extent that could have knocked someone out of the merit raise, it would have been worth doing the math.

They should assuming they were doing substantially similar work. That's not to say that errors don't happen in classifying the work as relevant or specialized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The lesson learned from this thread is to negotiate your pay knowing what the merit raise will be for the next year in the CBA (i.e. akin to what biglaw laterals do when lateraling to other biglaw firms and negotiating to get the full bonus even though he/she didn't work at the firm for the whole year).

You really can't negotiate at the SEC. They have a matrix based on years of experience and you get what you get. You can ask them to reconsider to make sure they put you in there correctly because errors definitely happen but if they've done it correctly that's the pay you're going to get.

Does this mean who is an attorney that has 4 years experience get the same pay? Even if they came from a massive big law salary or a smaller in-house/GS salary?

Also, my director at the SEC was pretty flexible with letting me onboard a month and half to get a bonus and 401k match. So to the extent that could have knocked someone out of the merit raise, it would have been worth doing the math.

They should assuming they were doing substantially similar work. That's not to say that errors don't happen in classifying the work as relevant or specialized.

Got it - thanks! I always thought they considered previous salary. So if the salary was higher at the old job, the matrix may not apply the same. But sounds like that’s wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The lesson learned from this thread is to negotiate your pay knowing what the merit raise will be for the next year in the CBA (i.e. akin to what biglaw laterals do when lateraling to other biglaw firms and negotiating to get the full bonus even though he/she didn't work at the firm for the whole year).

You really can't negotiate at the SEC. They have a matrix based on years of experience and you get what you get. You can ask them to reconsider to make sure they put you in there correctly because errors definitely happen but if they've done it correctly that's the pay you're going to get.

Does this mean who is an attorney that has 4 years experience get the same pay? Even if they came from a massive big law salary or a smaller in-house/GS salary?

Also, my director at the SEC was pretty flexible with letting me onboard a month and half to get a bonus and 401k match. So to the extent that could have knocked someone out of the merit raise, it would have been worth doing the math.

They should assuming they were doing substantially similar work. That's not to say that errors don't happen in classifying the work as relevant or specialized.

They do consider it, but not to that extent. For example, your experience in private might pay a lot, but it doesn’t necessarily qualify you more for the job than someone with a lower salary.

When I came into FDIC I was given a decent raise. I think it’s because I was hired off the same Cert as someone who had a higher pay than I had, and our experience was equivalent. She had come from private to her previous position and probably didn’t receive a raise coming in.

Got it - thanks! I always thought they considered previous salary. So if the salary was higher at the old job, the matrix may not apply the same. But sounds like that’s wrong.

[Anonymous]

I didn’t realize there were federal employees that didn’t get a raise. Are there other agencies besides the financial regulators where this is the case?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t realize there were federal employees that didn’t get a raise. Are there other agencies besides the financial regulators where this is the case?

Yes. There are all sorts of special pay rates, but usually those not getting the same raise are generally making more money anyway, and they do get raises. It’s just not automatic to the passing of the budget.

[Anonymous]

If you get hired June or after at the FDIC then you will not get an annual raise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for SEC- we get annual increase in PP7. It is kind of a complicated formula but works out much better than the GS pay increases.

It's better but it's not much better. The SEC doesn't get step increases and those have an average value of 1.5% per year including the years where you don't get a step increase so the SEC raise is about 1.15% better than the GS raise.

True, but the baseline starting point is way higher. This is kinda like saying that a banker/trader earning 650K only got a 1% raise while the regulator earning 200K got a 5% raise. Which would you rather be?

PP- exactly my spouse is a 15/10 and has been at the cap for years. At the SEC I am a SK 14 at the cap and make significantly more than them.

You aren't joking. That's like a 50k difference.

I work for the FDIC. The same pay grade for the job I do at the SEC pays at least $40,000 more at the top of the scale. I always thought that the federal regulators were supposed to be comparable in this way, but they are not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for SEC- we get annual increase in PP7. It is kind of a complicated formula but works out much better than the GS pay increases.

It's better but it's not much better. The SEC doesn't get step increases and those have an average value of 1.5% per year including the years where you don't get a step increase so the SEC raise is about 1.15% better than the GS raise.

True, but the baseline starting point is way higher. This is kinda like saying that a banker/trader earning 650K only got a 1% raise while the regulator earning 200K got a 5% raise. Which would you rather be?

PP- exactly my spouse is a 15/10 and has been at the cap for years. At the SEC I am a SK 14 at the cap and make significantly more than them.

You aren't joking. That's like a 50k difference.

I work for the FDIC. The same pay grade for the job I do at the SEC pays at least $40,000 more at the top of the scale. I always thought that the federal regulators were supposed to be comparable in this way, but they are not.

Which pay grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for SEC- we get annual increase in PP7. It is kind of a complicated formula but works out much better than the GS pay increases.

It's better but it's not much better. The SEC doesn't get step increases and those have an average value of 1.5% per year including the years where you don't get a step increase so the SEC raise is about 1.15% better than the GS raise.

True, but the baseline starting point is way higher. This is kinda like saying that a banker/trader earning 650K only got a 1% raise while the regulator earning 200K got a 5% raise. Which would you rather be?

PP- exactly my spouse is a 15/10 and has been at the cap for years. At the SEC I am a SK 14 at the cap and make significantly more than them.

You aren't joking. That's like a 50k difference.

I work for the FDIC. The same pay grade for the job I do at the SEC pays at least $40,000 more at the top of the scale. I always thought that the federal regulators were supposed to be comparable in this way, but they are not.

Which pay grade?

NP. The FDIC revamped how it pays people so that if you are new to the fdic, you get paid much less than someone with the same number of total years of experience but who has been at the fdic longer. They’ve been quite explicit that this was a new policy choice they made. So the fdic no longer pays competitively for incoming folks (though it’s a bit haphazard and managers can seek policy exceptions, so some people may chime in that they are new to the fdic and doing well which may be true or may be a results of them not knowing how much their peers are making). This it wouldn’t surprise me if a person new to the fdic makes 40k less than someone new to the sec with the same number of years of experience, regardless of whether they are a 14 or 15 on fdics scale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for SEC- we get annual increase in PP7. It is kind of a complicated formula but works out much better than the GS pay increases.

It's better but it's not much better. The SEC doesn't get step increases and those have an average value of 1.5% per year including the years where you don't get a step increase so the SEC raise is about 1.15% better than the GS raise.

True, but the baseline starting point is way higher. This is kinda like saying that a banker/trader earning 650K only got a 1% raise while the regulator earning 200K got a 5% raise. Which would you rather be?

PP- exactly my spouse is a 15/10 and has been at the cap for years. At the SEC I am a SK 14 at the cap and make significantly more than them.

You aren't joking. That's like a 50k difference.

I work for the FDIC. The same pay grade for the job I do at the SEC pays at least $40,000 more at the top of the scale. I always thought that the federal regulators were supposed to be comparable in this way, but they are not.

Which pay grade?

NP. The FDIC revamped how it pays people so that if you are new to the fdic, you get paid much less than someone with the same number of total years of experience but who has been at the fdic longer. They’ve been quite explicit that this was a new policy choice they made. So the fdic no longer pays competitively for incoming folks (though it’s a bit haphazard and managers can seek policy exceptions, so some people may chime in that they are new to the fdic and doing well which may be true or may be a results of them not knowing how much their peers are making). This it wouldn’t surprise me if a person new to the fdic makes 40k less than someone new to the sec with the same number of years of experience, regardless of whether they are a 14 or 15 on fdics scale.

This is all correct but just to add to it: the policy choice was made by McWilliams with the goal of paying fdic workers less (because the way to justify paying new workers less than their peers is to weight numbers of years of experience at fdic heavily in the pay formula; in many instances, the formula results in people having salaries much lower than what they would earn at a non financial regulator). While gruenberg professes to be more friendly to workers, he has actually fully adopted this new approach to pay setting. So the fdic had largely given up on being competitive with its peers on salary unless your salary was set before this new approach to pay setting went into effect or your manager seeks a policy exception for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for SEC- we get annual increase in PP7. It is kind of a complicated formula but works out much better than the GS pay increases.

It's better but it's not much better. The SEC doesn't get step increases and those have an average value of 1.5% per year including the years where you don't get a step increase so the SEC raise is about 1.15% better than the GS raise.

True, but the baseline starting point is way higher. This is kinda like saying that a banker/trader earning 650K only got a 1% raise while the regulator earning 200K got a 5% raise. Which would you rather be?

PP- exactly my spouse is a 15/10 and has been at the cap for years. At the SEC I am a SK 14 at the cap and make significantly more than them.

You aren't joking. That's like a 50k difference.

I work for the FDIC. The same pay grade for the job I do at the SEC pays at least $40,000 more at the top of the scale. I always thought that the federal regulators were supposed to be comparable in this way, but they are not.

Which pay grade?

NP. The FDIC revamped how it pays people so that if you are new to the fdic, you get paid much less than someone with the same number of total years of experience but who has been at the fdic longer. They’ve been quite explicit that this was a new policy choice they made. So the fdic no longer pays competitively for incoming folks (though it’s a bit haphazard and managers can seek policy exceptions, so some people may chime in that they are new to the fdic and doing well which may be true or may be a results of them not knowing how much their peers are making). This it wouldn’t surprise me if a person new to the fdic makes 40k less than someone new to the sec with the same number of years of experience, regardless of whether they are a 14 or 15 on fdics scale.

This is all correct but just to add to it: the policy choice was made by McWilliams with the goal of paying fdic workers less (because the way to justify paying new workers less than their peers is to weight numbers of years of experience at fdic heavily in the pay formula; in many instances, the formula results in people having salaries much lower than what they would earn at a non financial regulator). While gruenberg professes to be more friendly to workers, he has actually fully adopted this new approach to pay setting. So the fdic had largely given up on being competitive with its peers on salary unless your salary was set before this new approach to pay setting went into effect or your manager seeks a policy exception for you.

I anticipate that many will leave fdic for the cfpb, especially with the full remote option negotiated at the cfpb recently.

[Anonymous]

I used to work at one of the higher paying financial regulators. This thread reminds me of why I left. Too many staff members are focused on the pay and benefits over the work. Over the years, I watched our package grow sweeter and sweeter, yet the more that was given, the more staff wanted. Interestingly, the same grumbles didn’t come from management, and they weren’t paid that much more but worked much harder. In time, I really grew tired of my smart, but entitled colleagues sucking the system dry while moaning about how “busy” they were, which was nothing but code for “leave me alone.” I wanted to be proud of my colleagues, but I found many of them disappointing.