Number of the Day: Federal Salaries Lag Private Sector by 27%, Report Says
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Number of the Day: Federal Salaries Lag Private Sector by 27%, Report Says

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Salaries for federal employees are nearly 27% lower, on average, than those for their private-sector counterparts, according to figures reported Tuesday by the Federal Salary Council, an advisory body responsible for making recommendations regarding such pay disparities.

The gap between federal and private-sector pay shrank by 4.25 percentage points since April 2018, the council said, but there was “no readily apparent reason” for the change, according to The Washington Post.

The pay gap figures are based on Labor Department data on salaries across a range of occupations, levels and locations, the Post’s Eric Yoder writes. “Other studies, using different methods, produce different conclusions,” he adds. “Some conservative and libertarian organizations have found a difference in favor of federal employees, while the Congressional Budget Office in 2017 found salaries overall to be about comparable, although with variations by educational level.”