There’s always a debate if federal government employees are overpaid or underpaid in contrast to their private sector counterparts. I find this analysis pretty weak as often you are comparing apples to oranges – are you comparing federal salaries (which has a higher percentage of college grads) to Wal-Mart which has lots of low-paid employees or Apple or Google which has a lot of highly-skilled white collar employees.
Luckily, I think we have a decent comparison to make based on recently released data. Yesterday, DeadSpin released a HR document they had obtained which had ESPN’s HR employee salary tables.
It’s a very similar layout to federal government (see U.S. Federal Pay Scale) – both have 15 general grades and 5-6 executive grades so I thought I’d do a comparison
Structure:
ESPN – Grades 25 to 11 (11 being highest) and then Executive (ES 13 to 18 – 13 being highest). They have quartiles within each grade (25%, 50%, 75%, Max) that create a salary range.
Federal Government – Grades 1 through 15 and SES ES V to 1 (one being highest). There are 10 steps within each grade except for SES.
Comparison:
So let’s do some comparison:
Highest: Let’s start with the top. What is the max you can make as an executive in federal employee versus the top executives in ESPN
Totals: ESPN ES 13 maximum is $407,250 while an ESV in feds is $199,700
Verdict: ESPN wins
Upper middle: Next up, let’s compare the top of the non-exec pay range. GS 11 for ESPN at maximum versus a GS 15 Step 10 for federal Government.
Totals: ESPN GS 11 max is $226,080 while a GS 15 Step 10 is $155,500 in DC
Verdict: ESPN wins
Middle: Let’s compare in the middle for each. Both pay ranges have 15 grades so I picked a GS 18 in ESPN and a GS 8 in federal government.
Totals: ESPN GS 18 maximum is $67,200 while a GS 8 Step 10 in DC makes $60,750
Verdict: ESPN wins
Low: Let’s not pick the bottom but close to the bottom. Let’s compare a 23 grade in ESPN and GS 3 in feds:
Totals: ESPN 23 maximum is $33,360 while a GS 3 Step 10 in DC is $35,269
Verdict: Feds win
Analysis: ESPN is higher paid in the top, upper middle, and middle ranks while feds are better compensated on the lower ends.
This actually confirms what my gut tells me. If you are a senior exec in government, you are generally underpaid compared with your counterparts outside of government (part of this is due to salaries being capped at Congress salaries and they rarely raise those partly because most Congressmen don’t need the money).
This gap in different shrinks and gets more comparable in the middle range and at the low end, government pays a little more.
What’s your take? Are Feds Overpaid of Underpaid?
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