Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone know how this works for ses with a performance increase?

You don’t get an automatic increase. Individual SES increase is determined by your performance rating and comparison against other executives in the pool. If you were at the cap of your tier, you can realize your performance based increase up to the new cap of $203,700 (assuming you are level 2). For example, this year I earned a 5 rating (outstanding) and was given a 3.75 percent salary increase. I won’t get the full increase because it would put me over level 2. But I’ll realize 2.6 percent of the 3.75 percent in this situation. Had the cap not increased this year, I would not have realized any of that 3.75 percent performance pay increase.

Yeah, but SES receives their money in the big bonuses.

Anonymous wrote:I hope the 2023 raise is substantially more than these peanuts. And it's 2023 or never, what with federal employee hating, nasty GOP possibly retaking the House.

I don’t know why people keep touting this line. It’s been discussed ad naseum (and you can easily pull the data) that feds have consistently gotten higher raises under republicans.

New pay tables are out:

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/2022/general-schedule/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t care about a a raise of a couple thousand dollars.
I’m in it for the benefits.

Which suck.

Educate yourself. The benefits are outstanding. Among them: If you make it to retirement, you can carry the health insurance for you and your partner for the rest of your lives. Best insurance coverage available. Full stop.

In guessing you aren't in STEMland?

Our competition does 7%, 401k matches, can mega backdoor, similar insurance, sabbaticals, money to travel to conferences etc.

You can’t keep your health insurance when you retire or are laid off, correct? And no pensions? Those are massive differences.

Np I am a fed but is the health insurance that good? Isn’t Medicare plus part D cheaper and better?

Fwiw my parents have way better insurance through my dads company than I have. My best friend in private sector doesn’t even pay premiums with her health insurance.

Depends when you want to retire and what Fed health plan you have. You can’t get Medicare before 65 on the basis of age, but can retire with health insurance from the Federal government before that depending on your years of service and agency. 57 for me, and the difference between that and 65 with zero worries about health insurance is quite a lot.

I hope the 2023 raise is substantially more than these peanuts. And it's 2023 or never, what with federal employee hating, nasty GOP possibly retaking the House.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Depends on the area of work. I work at a federal science agency and a majority of my colleagues are maxed GS-15s. Everyone makes substantially less than private sector counterparts, 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.

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 substantially more than $172K?

Many do. Scientists in charge of manufacturing, regulatory affairs, leads on project development. $200k+ is easy. Many leave for $300-400k+. If you stay in the lab, sure, it is hard to make more than. $150k as a scientist. The real money is in manufacturing, regulatory product development, and business strategy.

Leaving for $200k would be foolish.

Are there really loads of scientists making $300k-$400k? Please list some companies where that is common, not just the one Chief Scientist or VP of research.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone know how this works for ses with a performance increase?

You don’t get an automatic increase. Individual SES increase is determined by your performance rating and comparison against other executives in the pool. If you were at the cap of your tier, you can realize your performance based increase up to the new cap of $203,700 (assuming you are level 2). For example, this year I earned a 5 rating (outstanding) and was given a 3.75 percent salary increase. I won’t get the full increase because it would put me over level 2. But I’ll realize 2.6 percent of the 3.75 percent in this situation. Had the cap not increased this year, I would not have realized any of that 3.75 percent performance pay increase.

I received a raise of 1.6 percent plus the comparability adjustment, whatever that is.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Depends on the area of work. I work at a federal science agency and a majority of my colleagues are maxed GS-15s. Everyone makes substantially less than private sector counterparts, 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.

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 substantially more than $172K?

Many do. Scientists in charge of manufacturing, regulatory affairs, leads on project development. $200k+ is easy. Many leave for $300-400k+. If you stay in the lab, sure, it is hard to make more than. $150k as a scientist. The real money is in manufacturing, regulatory product development, and business strategy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t care about a a raise of a couple thousand dollars.
I’m in it for the benefits.

Which suck.

Educate yourself. The benefits are outstanding. Among them: If you make it to retirement, you can carry the health insurance for you and your partner for the rest of your lives. Best insurance coverage available. Full stop.

In guessing you aren't in STEMland?

Our competition does 7%, 401k matches, can mega backdoor, similar insurance, sabbaticals, money to travel to conferences etc.

You can’t keep your health insurance when you retire or are laid off, correct? And no pensions? Those are massive differences.

Np I am a fed but is the health insurance that good? Isn’t Medicare plus part D cheaper and better?

Fwiw my parents have way better insurance through my dads company than I have. My best friend in private sector doesn’t even pay premiums with her health insurance.

Former Fed (10+ years) here and while the insurance is generally very good (I had BCBS Standard), and the fact that you get it in retirement is definitely a plus, it's not as amazing as people say. For one, there's zero fertility coverage, which compared to private sector companies is pretty disappointing. Second, the premiums for adding dependent coverage are not that great either. I now work at a big tech company and my entire family is covered with a PPO for less than $300/mo. If I had stayed with the fed gov't, it would have been significantly more than that (and I'd be getting paid a lot less, of course). I also think the Fed pension is pretty mediocre. At least at my old agency, the theory was that your TSP + SS + pension would serve to replace your full salary in retirement. So the pension is nowhere near your full salary (whereas in local/state gov't, that sometimes is the case - I worked for local gov't briefly and they promised a full pension after 30 years of service). Plus at my tech company now, I get a far larger match to my 401K, and also have access to mega backdoor roth.

All that said, the job security is not to be taken lightly, and for some, the partial pension plus lifetime health insurance makes it worthwhile. That's of course setting aside the mission aspect, which for me was the best part of being a Fed. Unfortunately I had had it with the politics and lack of advancement opportunities, so I'm very glad I left.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t care about a a raise of a couple thousand dollars.
I’m in it for the benefits.

Which suck.

Educate yourself. The benefits are outstanding. Among them: If you make it to retirement, you can carry the health insurance for you and your partner for the rest of your lives. Best insurance coverage available. Full stop.

In guessing you aren't in STEMland?

Our competition does 7%, 401k matches, can mega backdoor, similar insurance, sabbaticals, money to travel to conferences etc.

You can’t keep your health insurance when you retire or are laid off, correct? And no pensions? Those are massive differences.

Np I am a fed but is the health insurance that good? Isn’t Medicare plus part D cheaper and better?

Fwiw my parents have way better insurance through my dads company than I have. My best friend in private sector doesn’t even pay premiums with her health insurance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:EO signed and 2022 tables posted - https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/2022/general-schedule/

Thank you. Looks like capped 15s got 2.2% still.

Good.

Anonymous wrote:EO signed and 2022 tables posted - https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/2022/general-schedule/

Thank you. Looks like capped 15s got 2.2% still.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t care about a a raise of a couple thousand dollars.
I’m in it for the benefits.

Which suck.

Educate yourself. The benefits are outstanding. Among them: If you make it to retirement, you can carry the health insurance for you and your partner for the rest of your lives. Best insurance coverage available. Full stop.

In guessing you aren't in STEMland?

Our competition does 7%, 401k matches, can mega backdoor, similar insurance, sabbaticals, money to travel to conferences etc.

You can’t keep your health insurance when you retire or are laid off, correct? And no pensions? Those are massive differences.

Plus the fed job security is nothing to sneeze at, especially as you get older.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t care about a a raise of a couple thousand dollars.
I’m in it for the benefits.

Which suck.

Educate yourself. The benefits are outstanding. Among them: If you make it to retirement, you can carry the health insurance for you and your partner for the rest of your lives. Best insurance coverage available. Full stop.

In guessing you aren't in STEMland?

Our competition does 7%, 401k matches, can mega backdoor, similar insurance, sabbaticals, money to travel to conferences etc.

You can’t keep your health insurance when you retire or are laid off, correct? And no pensions? Those are massive differences.

Anonymous wrote:Anyone know how this works for ses with a performance increase?

You don’t get an automatic increase. Individual SES increase is determined by your performance rating and comparison against other executives in the pool. If you were at the cap of your tier, you can realize your performance based increase up to the new cap of $203,700 (assuming you are level 2). For example, this year I earned a 5 rating (outstanding) and was given a 3.75 percent salary increase. I won’t get the full increase because it would put me over level 2. But I’ll realize 2.6 percent of the 3.75 percent in this situation. Had the cap not increased this year, I would not have realized any of that 3.75 percent performance pay increase.