Private Sector Leads Federal Salaries By 35 Percent

Federal Salaries 35% Less Than Private Sector

Unexpectedly and some may say tragically the salaries of the private sector employees are a lot more than those of their federal employee counterparts that do similar jobs. The federal salaries continue to be 35 percent lesser than the private sector ones; this was confirmed by an advisory committee who put forward the final data when a heated debate finally reached an end.

The gap is not something that one can easily ignore; it’s almost 35 percent (34.945 to be exact) and this is not substantially lesser than the 35.36 and the 35.23 percentages that were decided upon by the board of the Federal Salary council. This figure is considered to be very consistent and there hardly has been a stark change seen in the past few years.

The council that decides upon such matters comprises of the representatives of the federal employee union and other foreign compensation gurus. These people are also responsible for overlooking the general schedule pay system that is applicable to the 1 and a half million white collar officers that work below the senior level designations. This general schedule system announces rates that always vary by the location and has separate benchmarks for both Hawaii and Alaska. There are designated metropolitan areas and the rest of the US is encompassed in the catchall.

The greatest discrepancies are seen in the localities of Washington and Baltimore. Here the disparities among pay amount to 51 percent. After this the San Diego and the San Francisco areas come at 49 percent, give or take. The least amount is unexpectedly in the catcall area; 14 percent. Here it’s worth taking note that these rates are determined not according to where the officers live but where they work.

The laws dictate these numbers to be closed down and the private sector pay be made as close to the federal pay as possible but no steps have substantially been taken by the Congress. Here’s hoping that would change.