Did you know that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has posted the average annual salary for Federal Government employees since 2010? It is interesting to see how their pay has changed over the years, as well as how it compares to private industry employees across a variety of different industries.
The average salary for government employees is $50,000 per year. This includes all federal, state and local government employees.
Average salary for government employees
The good news is that, on the whole, government employees earn more than those who work in the private sector. The bad news is that there are significant discrepancies in pay between different branches of government and different types of jobs within those branches. The table below lists average salary information for specific fields and levels of experience.
In context, of course, the government spending is pretty reasonable. The highest salaries are unattainable, but they are still very high. These salaries make sense when you put them into perspective. For example, the $159k listing for a Supply Chain Analyst is actually a bit misleading since that’s an estimate that includes contractors whom work on the job site. The actual “salary” (which includes benefits) is around $115-120k. For one year employees it’s closer to $90k; however, somewhere within that salary range you’ll have people like Computer Engineers and Software Engineers with over 30 years of experience (not counting their lower salary years as contractors). It’s hard to argue that the government isn’t paying what it wants to pay for certain highly sought after positions in a tried and tested government system.
