Fatter Federal Paychecks

A lot of headlines recently have painted federal workers as overpaid. A new survey by InformationWeek Analytics adds fuel to this claim, particularly if one compares the salaries of federal information technology workers to their private sector counterparts. In fact, findings show that federal IT workers earn much heftier paychecks than do IT workers overall.

The survey of 18,201 IT professionals -- 900 in the federal government -- found that federal IT was among the top eight industries commanding the highest salaries. For example, federal IT staffers earn a median annual salary of $98,000, while federal IT managers earn a median salary of $120,000. This contrasts with the IT industry overall, where median salaries were $87,000 for IT staffers and $115,000 for IT managers, the survey found.

The survey also found that eight industries pay median IT staff less than $80,000. Education paid the least ($61,000), followed by nonprofits ($63,000) and state ($68,000) and local governments ($70,000).

Still, federal IT workers are the only ones outearning the average. Employees in other industries, like securities and investments, metals and natural resources, biotech, financial services, electronics, energy, telecommunications and IT vendors make more than the norm.

Like federal workers, IT professionals across the board have also been affected by pay freezes. Those freezes have given way to small increases, with median total compensation rising just 0.9 percent for IT staffers and 1.9 percent for managers in 2011, the survey found. These hikes pale in comparison to those in 2001, when median raises were 8.5 percent for staff and 9.9 percent for managers.

In addition, today's top-paid IT skills are data integration, which command a median annual salary of $107,000, followed by enterprise application integration, where median salaries are $105,000. Other top-paid skills are enterprise resource planning ($102,000), security ($97,000) and application development ($96,000).

At the lower end of the payscale, the situation is less worker-friendly for non-IT job-seekers. A new study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers finds that employers are planning to hire more computer science graduates this year at an average starting salary of $63,000.

NACE's Spring 2011 Job Outlook Update found that the 2011 class of computer science grads have much better prospects than graduates did the year before. For example, the number of projected entry-level hires for 2011 is up 18.4 percent over 2010, making computer science careers among the best bets for 2011 graduates, the survey found.

Average starting salaries for computer science grads also stand at $63,017, NACE found. But federal salaries for new college graduates are much lower, with General Schedule Grade 7 pay in the Washington area coming in at $42,209. The government sector also has the bleakest outlook when it comes to hiring projections. Of the eight government respondents to the survey, six expect to cut their hiring numbers, the study found.

Meanwhile, technical skills were considered by employers surveyed as critical for new college hires. For example, employers rated technical knowledge and proficiency with computer software programs as very important. The most valued skills by employers were verbal communication and the ability to make decisions and solve problems.