Reply to Federal employee pay raise 2022

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I hate the implication on DCUM that most feds are topped-out 15s. That is the realm of a few niche career paths like law or upper administration. The vast majority of us will spend our entire careers at the worker bee level of GS 9-12. Maybe 13 if we go into management. Barely cracking six figures after decades of service is a real hardship in the DC area.[/quote]

Depends on the area of work.  I work at [b]a federal science agency and a majority of my colleagues are maxed GS-15s.[/b]  [b]Everyone makes substantially less than private sector counterparts[/b], and recruiting is a major challenge.  It is hard to find good people to take management positions because there's nothing in it for them.

Setting aside that GS-15s in professional/STEM fields are significantly underpaid compared to the private sector, GS-15s are making $15,000 less they would be if they had gotten the same increases as other feds.  And more significantly, that gap is growing almost every year, with no end in sight.[/quote]

Unless you meant Medical Doctor, how could people in science in private sectors earn substantially more than $172K? Do not talk about scientists in Pfizer who are probably earning a big bonus because of the vaccine (once in a life time).  What kind of scientists in private sectors make [b]substantially[/b] more than $172K?[/quote]

IT security and senior engineering jobs quite regularly pay more than $200k, without even including stock options. Even top-tier academic researchers regularly make more than $200k, not from their academic salary alone, but when you include summer pay and consulting gigs.[/quote]

Sure but most in Federal workforce are over 35, so unless they are TRULY exceptional, they aren’t getting those $200k+ jobs (there was just a thread saying $150k for SWE is too high).

Academic researchers? You mean professor or lab staff? Sure IF you can get a tenure professor ship and find consulting gigs, that’s a great deal. But working as lab researcher at Uni, that pays peanuts. [/quote]

And comparing GS-15 researchers to a top academic researcher (tenure professor) is not really equivalent.  TT professorships are extremely tough to get.  Lab researchers at uni's pay a lot less (especially if your science staff, not engineering staff, but both cases are less than private sector), plus are generally completely funded on soft money and have much less security.  And federal benefits tend to be a lot more generous than private sector, perhaps unless you are talking FAANG companies in a hot area.

I do think all wages should keep up with inflation for COLA raises, but the feds aren't getting especially short changed compared to private sector.  In private sector, to get a big raise, you often have to change jobs.[/quote]

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