🚀 go-pugleaf

To All:

In recent weeks, there has appeared, in this and some related
newsgroups, a debate relative to U.S. Government civil servant
salaries compared to contractor, or private sector salaries.  Many of
the postings on this topic have been anecdotal, with very little real
value in addressing the question of Civil Servant vs. Private Sector
pay, in the aerospace business.

I have some data taken from two publications available at the NASA
Lewis Research Center which does provide specific information on
Civil Servant Salaries. I am posting this information not to get
involved in that debate, but to present some actual data for those
who are involved in the debate to, as the saying goes "hang their
hats on."

For FY 94, the data is "hard" data.  I.e., no assumptions on my part
were required. The only qualification is that the data are for the
Fiscal Year 1994 (10/01/93-9/30/94).  The data are taken from a
presentation entitled "Civil Service Workforce at Lewis Research
Center, Fiscal Year 1994." I am writing this on my word processor and
am trying to format it so it is as readable as possible. If the
formatting gets trashed during posting, my apologies in advance.


                        SALARY DATA (FY 1994)
                        =====================

                                             AVERAGE ANNUAL
JOB CATEGORY               NO. OF EMPLOYEES      SALARY
------------------------------------------------------
Scientists/Engineers           1437             $62,678
Administrative Professionals    309              49,962
Technicians                     314              45,773
Wage Grade                      262              38,025
Clerical                        205              26,920

Total Workforce                2527              53,566


EDUCATION BY JOB CATEGORY
=============================
                                                 % OF JOB
JOB CATEGORY                NO. OF EMPLOYEES     CATEGORY
---------------------------------------------------------
Scientist/Engineers
     Doctorate                  236                16.4%
     Master's                   478                33.3
     Bachelor's                 723                50.3
     Other (Associate,            0                 0
       High School, etc)
........................................................
Administrative Professionals
     Doctorate                    6                 1.9%
     Master's                    60                19.4
     Bachelor's                 133                43.0
     Other (Associate,          110                35.6
       High School, etc)
......................................................
Technicians
     Doctorate                   0                  0 %
     Master's                    0                  0
     Bachelor's                 11                3.5
     Other (Associate,         303               96.5
       High School, etc)
.....................................................
Wage Grade*
     Doctorate                   0                  0 %
     Master's                    0                  0
     Bachelor's                  8                3.1
     Other (Associate,         254               96.9
       High School, etc)
........................................................
Clerical
     Doctorate                   0                 0  %
     Master's                    1                 0.5
     Bachelor's                  4                 2.0
     Other (Associate,         200                97.5
       High School, etc)
.......................................................
Total Workforce
     Doctorate                 242                 9.6%
     Master's                  539                21.3
     Bachelor's                878                34.7
     Other (Associate,         868                34.4
       High School, etc)



*I believe that individuals paid under the Wage Grade Schedule (WS)
 are primarily skilled mechanics, electricians, machinists,
 carpenters, and other craftsman.




                       FISCAL YEAR 1995

The corresponding data for FY 1995 is not available (to me, at any
rate). However, with a fair amount of arithmetic, and one assumption,
approximate overall data on salaries for civil servants at Lewis
Research Center can be derived from a Lewis Publication (available to
all employees at Lewis) entitled "Lewis Research Center: Equal
Opportunity and Diversity Management and FY96 Affirmative Employment
Program Plan"

The data in that publication are broken up by Pay Grade and further
subdivided into a variety of cultural diversity/equal opportunity
employment groups. I am presenting the properly weighted averages
from this publication. It is NOT the intent of this posting to
initiate a debate on affirmative action/multicultural diversity, etc,
and I will not post the breakdown of these figures.

The Job Categories in this publication are broken down somewhat
differently than above. There are only two categories which contain
pay grade information: Professional and Administrative. Furthermore,
the information is only presented for pay Grades 12-15, and the SES
(Senior Executive Service).  I do not know what constitutes
"Professional", but assume it includes individuals with earned
degrees in the sciences, engineering, mathematics, and law. To my
knowledge there are very few, if any, Medical Professionals at LeRC.
Our Medical Services organization is a contractor operation.

Finally, I had to make one important assumption: that the average
individual in any given Pay Grade Level is at step 5 (out of 10)
within that grade.

For Fiscal year 1995, then the figures are:

No. of Civil Servant  "Professionals" :   1320
Average Salary:                        $60,382


A couple of observations and this posting will, for those who have
read this far, mercifully end.

1. There was a statutory 4.3 % pay increase between 1994 and 1995 for
   civil servants in the General Schedule at Lewis.  This consisted
   of an annual nationwide "pay comparability" increase of about
   3.7 % (erroneously called by many a COLA, which it most assuredly
   is NOT), and an additional amount based on variations of changes
   in the cost of living from one locality to another.  This was
   about 0.6% for Cleveland. For Houston it was about 4.8%; for
   Huntsville about 0.7%; for the Bay Area (NASA Ames); about 4.4%,
   for Washington, D.C. about 1.8%.

2. I believe that the "apparent decrease" in average Civil Servant
   salary between 1994 and 1995 at LeRC is due to a number of
   factors.  The weighted average I computed for 1995 did not include
   SES personnel, the numbers for 1994 do. These are principally
   Senior Level Managers, and SES pay varies between $92,900 and
   $115,700.  Also, there was a relatively large exodus (about 400
   people, I believe) during the "buyouts" in the last year or so.
   Those taking the buyout were for the most individuals with 30 or
   more years of service, and would necessarily have been at the
   higher pay grades, on average.

3. I believe that the two figures above, for 1994, and 1995, are
   representative of all the NASA Field Centers (after accounting for
   the locality pay differentials).  I have no reason to believe that
   the job, skill, and education mix would be much different from one
   center to the next. It is probably an understatement of the
   average Civil Servant salary at NASA HQ, however, because of the
   relatively large number of senior agency managers there.

4. If I have offended any particular group of workers or profession
   at Lewis by failing to mention them, or providing incorrect
   information, then I apologize in advance. My phone number is in
   the LeRC Directory. I have a thick skin.


It would be interesting to have similar information posted from any
of the contractor organizations supporting the respective NASA
Centers, if it is available.


    Allen K.








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Everyone is entitled to my opinion.
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