Senior Executive Service members received an average pay raise of 2.7 percent last year, according to a new report by the Office of Personnel Management.
The 2.7 percent -- or $4,485 -- average pay raise was a full 1 percent lower than the average pay raise SES members received in 2008. It also marks the lowest increase federal executives have received since 2004, the last year data is available.
Executives also received performance bonuses, with the average bonus in fiscal 2009 coming in at $14,802. That number is just slightly lower than the average bonus of $14,815 offered in 2008, but the percentage of SES members receiving bonuses increased from 76.5 percent to 78.5 in 2009, according to the report.
In interviewing agency chief information officers and chief human capital officers for my October article on federal IT recruiting for Government Executive, one theme rang true: when it comes to recruiting and hiring senior-level, experienced IT workers, federal salaries cannot compete. "They have to find other reasons to want to come work for the VA and for why they're going to give up tens of thousands of dollars in salary to take on a government job versus a private sector job," said Veterans Affairs CIO Roger Baker. "That's at the most senior levels, and that's also at the levels where it counts the most."
Given the latest numbers on SES pay, can the government pay scale compete for senior IT workers, even given the sluggish economy?
Brittany Ballenstedt
Brittany Ballenstedt writes Nextgov's Wired Workplace blog, which delves into the issues facing employees who work in the federal information technology sector. Before joining Nextgov, Brittany covered federal pay and benefits issues as a staff correspondent for Government Executive and served as an associate editor for National Journal's Technology Daily. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Mansfield University and originally hails from Pennsylvania. She currently lives near Travis Air Force Base, Calif., where her husband is stationed.
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