Want a six-figure salary? Try the federal government
How many of you have ridden in an elevator or taxi that has a mini screen that flashes the news, weather and trivia? We have those in the elevators in the high-rise that’s home to CareerBuilder’s corporate headquarters.
Quite often there’s a tidbit that intrigues me in my pre-caffeinated state and I’ll actually remember to follow up on it when I get to my computer. This morning was one of those occasions. One of the headlines glaring at me was about the high number of federal employees who earn six-figure salaries.
A story in USA Today reports that during a time when the overall U.S. workforce is struggling with layoffs, high unemployment, pay cuts and salary freezes, the federal workforce is growing in salaries and hiring. In fact, the number of federal employees who earn $100,000 or more grew by 46% between December 2007 and June 2009.
USA Today analyzed data from the Office of Personnel Management, which tracks the pay of federal workers. (The OPM excludes info about the White House personnel, Congress, Postal Service employees, intelligence agencies and uniformed military personnel).
Some of the key findings:
- “Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession’s first 18 months — and that’s before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.”
- “The growth in six-figure salaries has pushed the average federal worker’s pay to $71,206, compared with $40,331 in the private sector.”
- “The federal government is adding jobs this year of nearly 10,000 a month – the fastest pace since the 1960s when Medicare and Medicaid were created.”
The article attributes the salary boom to three things: pay hikes, a new pay system and the easing of pay caps.
Read the full story here complete with more analysis and interesting graphs.
If you’re interested in pursuing federal employment, try searching CareerBuilder.com using the keywords “federal government”, choose the “Government-Federal” in CareerBuilder’s categories menu, or go to http://www.usajobs.gov/.
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Source: http://www.theworkbuzz.com/salary/six-figure-federal-jobs/