(updated December 18, 2010)
The following chart has a few Federal-government job announcements. Notice the IT Specialist job with a maximum salary up to 140k. Wow! It looks like some Federal Government IT Specialists earn almost as much as a Director or Vice President of a publicly traded company.
The following chart has a few Federal-government job announcements. Notice the IT Specialist job with a maximum salary up to 140k. Wow! It looks like some Federal Government IT Specialists earn almost as much as a Director or Vice President of a publicly traded company.
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Demographic Details
The above government IT-Specialist salary ranges reminded me of the recent Computer World Salary survey. Computer World has been publishing their annual salary report for more than 12 years. It is more accurate and creditable than recently born Internet sites like salary.com.
The above government IT-Specialist salary ranges reminded me of the recent Computer World Salary survey. Computer World has been publishing their annual salary report for more than 12 years. It is more accurate and creditable than recently born Internet sites like salary.com.
This small government salary sample is not a face-to-face comparison to the Computer World salary report. Nor is this article intended to be a comprehensive analytical study, meaning, it does not include a job-to-job analysis, or a study of duties and skills. However, there are some insights in the following perspective.
Computer World's survey of IT-salaries do not include pay ranges that represent the entire career-life of an employee like the Federal government salary ranges. Yet, comparing the starting-salary of Federal government jobs to the entry-level job salary in the Computer World's salary report is equitable, particularly because the difference of averages was greater and therefore unsuitable. In addition, the lowest salary jobs were compared to each other, or highest to highest, not the lowest to the highest.
Apples to Apples
Apples to Apples
Computer World had six IT job titles including the term “Specialist.” In the government sample data, the lowest IT Specialist salary was $54k compared to the lowest Computer World IT Specialist salary at $50k, for a minor difference of $4k in favor of the government job. The highest government IT Specialist salary was $107 compared to the highest Computer World IT Specialist salary at $93k, for a difference of $14k in favor of the government job.
The maximum salary range of the best paying government IT Specialist job is $140k. No entry-level jobs or middle-management jobs, in the 2010 Computer World salary survey, matched the government IT Specialist salary of $140k. The closest comparison was in the Computer World Senior-management level of an “IT Architect / Strategist” at $143k, and a “Director / Vice President” at $146k.
When this article was published the first 24 government IT Specialist jobs listed paid over $100k, and the salary range for the top government IT Specialist was $127k to $210k USD per year. If you would like to see more detailed data, click on this link.
In the past, government jobs paid less but their retirement benefits were much better than most civilian company's. Today, at least for IT workers it looks like government pay, benefits and retirement are better than private companies salary and benefits, especially because many U.S. private IT jobs are now given to foreign citizens employees, overseas and here in the States.
In the past, government jobs paid less but their retirement benefits were much better than most civilian company's. Today, at least for IT workers it looks like government pay, benefits and retirement are better than private companies salary and benefits, especially because many U.S. private IT jobs are now given to foreign citizens employees, overseas and here in the States.
Here are some related questions. Will the Federal government offshore more jobs, in the future, like publicly traded companies today? However, does that mean that the Federal government salary for an IT Specialist job in India will be less or equal to the same U.S. based position? We know that public companies pay India employees much less. If we subcontracted our Federal Government jobs, could we expect a significant tax cut? On the other hand, are public companies paying enough today? Sorry, the complexities of these issues have generated more questions than answers for this short article.
On a side note, recently a friend told me that he went into the State government office and the person at the counter could barely speak English. Understandably, the service representative was unable to understand or help.
In conclusion, the sample government salary-data makes us question if we are reaching equality or just getting greedier like Enron executives. It would be interesting to see a comprehensive analytical study of government to private-company salary and benefits.
In conclusion, the sample government salary-data makes us question if we are reaching equality or just getting greedier like Enron executives. It would be interesting to see a comprehensive analytical study of government to private-company salary and benefits.
Copyright © 2010 Michael Rybin All Rights Reserved.
